Maze Therapeutics and Alloy Therapeutics Form Broadwing Bio to Develop Antibody Therapies in Ophthalmic Diseases
Maze Therapeutics and Alloy Therapeutics announced the formation of Broadwing Bio to develop targeted antibody therapies for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. Broadwing Bio will advance programs directed to genetically validated ophthalmology targets identified using Maze’s human genetics and functional genomics platform, the COMPASS platform. Alloy Discovery Services will generate therapeutic candidates using Alloy’s broad suite of antibody discovery technologies, including the ATX-Gx mouse platform.
Under the terms of the agreement, Maze and Alloy will fund Broadwing Bio to rapidly advance its programs through preclinical and clinical development with the opportunity for independent financing and partnering. Maze and Alloy will retain certain rights to participate in the development and commercialization of products originating from Broadwing Bio. The company will be led by Andrew Peterson, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of Broadwing Bio.
“We are very excited to partner with Alloy on the formation of Broadwing Bio, with a mission to advance therapeutics for ophthalmology indications,” Jason Coloma, PhD, chief executive officer of Maze, said in a company news release. “Maze is advancing a pipeline of programs based on genetic insights of disease, without restrictions on modality or therapeutic area. This joint venture will allow us to pursue compelling Maze-identified targets through a dedicated organization with the experience and focus to develop highly differentiated therapies addressing unmet needs in ophthalmology, while retaining significant financial participation and product rights.”
Broadwing Bio has established a team of experienced leaders and scientific advisors, including
- Andrew Peterson, PhD, founder and chief executive officer, former senior director of molecular biology and metabolic disease at Genentech;
- Manuel Rivas, D.Phil, founder and scientific advisory board member, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University;
- Tim Behrens, MD, steering committee member and senior vice president, human genetics at Maze, former senior director of human genetics at Genentech;
- Piotr Bobrowicz, PhD, steering committee member and chief technology officer at Alloy, former chief scientific officer at Compass Therapeutics and director of antibody engineering and head of strain engineering and open innovation at Adimab;
- John Atkinson, MD, scientific advisory board member, professor, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University; and
- Dan Stamer, PhD, scientific advisory board member, Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Professor of Ophthalmology, Duke University School of Medicine.
“There are a number of ophthalmic diseases for which effective therapeutic options are limited, but recent genetic insights provide avenues to change this situation,” said Dr. Peterson. “Broadwing Bio has the very unique opportunity to bring together the capabilities of two exceptional companies in order to develop novel treatments targeted at these diseases. I’m thrilled to join the company as CEO and look forward to building the Broadwing Bio team, while leveraging Maze and Alloy’s insights and experience in drug discovery in order to bring medicines to patients in need.”