Eight of the companies named to this year’s Fierce 15 list are based in Massachusetts, continuing the pattern of Massachusetts’ strength on the international list.
FierceBiotech, announced the 2015 Fierce 15 winners this morning. The Fierce 15 is a hotly anticipated annual award that recognizes the 15 most promising private biotech companies in the world. The award celebrates the spirit of being "fierce," championing innovation and creativity, even in the face of intense competition.
“With eight Commonwealth innovators included, Massachusetts has the largest representation on this year’s Fierce 15 list,” said Robert K. Coughlin, President and CEO of MassBio, which represents more than 650 biotech companies and other industry organizations. “These companies represent the next generation of our industry and are great examples of the Commonwealth’s position as the number one hub for life sciences in the world. We congratulate this year’s winners and look forward to their continued success.”
The Massachusetts companies represented on this year’s list are:
CRISPR Therapeutics (Cambridge)
CRISPR Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company created to translate CRISPR-Cas9, a breakthrough genome-editing technology, into transformative medicines for serious human diseases. We are uniquely positioned to translate CRISPR-Cas9 technology into human therapeutics, thanks to our multi-disciplinary team of world-renowned academics, clinicians and drug developers.
CRISPR Therapeutics’ vision is to cure serious human diseases at the molecular level using CRISPR-Cas9. The company is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and has operations in London, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
http://crisprtx.com/
Intellia Therapeutics (Cambridge)
Intellia is a leading gene editing company focused on the development of proprietary, potentially curative therapeutics utilizing a recently developed biological tool known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system. We believe that the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to transform medicine by permanently editing diseased genes in the human body through a single treatment course. We intend to leverage our leading scientific expertise, clinical development experience and intellectual property position to unlock broad therapeutic applications of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and develop a potential new drug class. CRISPR Therapeutics’ vision is to cure serious human diseases at the molecular level using CRISPR-Cas9.
Padlock Therapeutics (Cambridge)
Padlock will bring powerful new medicines to patients by developing drugs targeting the PAD enzymes. We will focus first on the role of PADs in generating neoantigens in destructive autoimmune diseases. Our long-term goal is to explore the full biological and therapeutic footprint of protein citrullination.
http://www.padlocktherapeutics.com/
SQZ Biotech (Cambridge)
Padlock will bring powerful new medicines to patients by developing drugs targeting the PAD enzymes. We will focus first on the role of PADs in generating neoantigens in destructive autoimmune diseases. Our long-term goal is to explore the full biological and therapeutic footprint of protein citrullination.
Surface Oncology (Cambridge)
We are creating the next generation of immunotherapies for cancer. To fully unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy, Surface Oncology targets a broader set of immune processes by which cancer cells evade immune attack. Our programs are built upon emerging, proprietary insights about how to improve the immune system’s recognition and elimination cancer cells.
http://www.surfaceoncology.com/
Syros Pharmaceuticals (Watertown)
Founded by world-leading experts in gene regulation, and led by a seasoned management team, Syros is focused on developing new medicines that control genes that cause disease. Central to our approach is a proprietary drug development platform of integrated gene control assay technologies, computational biology, chemistry, and deep biologic insights that gives us an unprecedented understanding of and control over gene regulation. Our pioneering research and drug development capabilities provide us with the distinctive ability to identify new, important disease and patient-targeted gene control medicines.
http://www.syros.com/#about
Unum Therapeutics (Cambridge)
Unum is a Cambridge, MA-based cellular therapeutics company ushering in a new wave of innovation in cancer immunotherapy. Unum has built an antibody-coupled T-cell receptor (ACTR) platform that, when combined with tumor-specific antibodies, directs an individual’s cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) to kill tumor cells. In contrast to other approaches that hit a single target and treat a narrow set of tumors, Unum’s approach is not restricted by antigens and may have applications for treating many types of cancers.
Yumanity Therapeutics (Cambridge)
Yumanity Therapeutics is transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding. Founded in December 2014 by award winning protein folding expert, Susan Lindquist, Ph.D., and renowned biotech industry leader, Tony Coles, M.D., Yumanity is working to identify and develop new, disease-modifying therapies that address several illnesses with critical unmet medical needs. The initial focus of the company is neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The company’s proprietary platforms have already identified one potential new target for treating Parkinson’s disease, and Yumanity is actively advancing its new chemical lead series for this condition, as well as identifying additional compounds for Alzheimer’s disease and ALS.
The full Fierce 15 list is available at www.fiercebiotech.com.