CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Montai Health, a company unlocking the power of nature with digital technologies to treat and preempt chronic disease, today announced the appointment of Michael Severino, M.D., and Andreas Fibig to the Company's Board of Directors. Dr. Severino and Mr. Fibig bring decades of drug development and commercialization leadership experience to Montai, where their expertise and support will be critical as the company advances its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to enable the predictable discovery of breakthrough small molecules for chronic disease.
"I'm thrilled to welcome Michael and Andreas to the board as we seize the unprecedented opportunity to address the global burden of chronic disease. They are proven leaders with experience guiding companies through transformational growth and bring important and unique perspectives to Montai," said Margo Georgiadis, co-founder and CEO of Montai Health and CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering. "Their exceptional track records leading global pharmaceutical companies, including research and development in inflammation and autoimmune disease, the commercialization of impactful medicines, and strategic partnerships, will enhance our success as we rapidly advance our platform and pipeline."
Michael Severino, M.D., brings more than two decades of experience in biopharmaceutical leadership and has made significant contributions to the research, development, registration, and commercialization of more than a dozen approved therapies. Dr. Severino is currently the CEO of Tessera Therapeutics. In prior roles at AbbVie, including Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer, and most recently, Vice Chairman and President, Dr. Severino led efforts to build a strong pipeline and advance promising therapies for patients in multiple disease areas. While at AbbVie, he identified key research collaboration opportunities in hematologic oncology, immunology, and neuroscience. Previously, Dr. Severino held several senior leadership roles at Amgen, leading to his appointment as Senior Vice President and Corporate Chief Medical Officer, overseeing the company's global clinical development efforts.
"I'm excited to take on this role, given the potential of Montai's platform to discover and advance first-in-class and best-in-class small-molecule drugs far more rapidly and predictably than traditional approaches," said Dr. Severino. "The opportunity to decode the structural language of chemistry at industry first scale and connect it to biology is transformative, and I look forward to helping Montai advance its groundbreaking work."
Andreas Fibig is the former CEO and Chairman of International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) and former President of Bayer. He brings nearly four decades of experience leveraging the intersection of natural products and pharmaceutical medicines to create significant commercial opportunities. At IFF, an industry leader in food ingredients, beverage, scent, health, and biosciences, Mr. Fibig led the company through a transformational period, overseeing the integration of DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences into the company, spearheading the organization's sustainability efforts, and driving strong sales growth. Previously, he served as President and Chairman of the Board of Management for Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for Bayer's global healthcare and pharmaceutical business. During his tenure, the company launched multiple new medicines to help patients with serious unmet medical needs while enhancing business development and marketing capabilities and accelerating growth to industry-leading rates. Mr. Fibig currently serves on the Board of Directors for Novo Nordisk and previously served on the Board of Directors for Bunge Limited.
"Leveraging AI and privileged molecules that have co-evolved with humans to enable consistent, repeatable discovery and development of small-molecule therapies to treat patients across a wide range of disease areas creates a remarkable opportunity to impact human health at scale," said Mr. Fibig. "Chronic diseases impact over two billion people worldwide and I’m excited to work with Montai to accelerate solutions for as many diseases and people as possible.”
About Montai Health
Montai Health is unlocking the power of nature with its pioneering AI-powered CONECTA™ platform to develop Anthromolecule™ medicines that will treat and preempt chronic diseases to improve health outcomes for the 2 billion people worldwide living with these diseases. Anthromolecule chemistry has co-evolved with humans through long term chronic consumption in foods, herbs, and traditional medicines. It offers a privileged starting point for developing breakthrough small-molecule medicines to address chronic diseases. Montai's CONECTA platform is powered by hyper-efficient, generalizable ML and the aggregation of Anthromolecule chemistry at industry first scale to predictably discover precision-matched, human-qualified chemistry that potently and safely engages validated biological pathways. Montai is rapidly advancing a pipeline of first-in-class or best-in-class small-molecule assets against multiple powerful, validated biological pathways in inflammation and autoimmune. Montai was founded in Flagship Labs in 2019. For more information, please visit www.montai.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has, through its Flagship Labs unit, applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $100 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship has deployed over $3.3 billion in capital toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $20 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 43 transformative companies, including Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Indigo Agriculture, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB).