AbbVie Golden Ticket 2020 Winners

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SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — AbbVie, a global, research-based biopharmaceutical company, and MBC BioLabs announced today that Bacchus Therapeutics and PTM Therapeutics have each won a 2020 AbbVie Golden Ticket at MBC BioLabs. The companies will each receive one year of lab bench space and access to core facilities at the MBC BioLabs life sciences incubator, and have opportunities to interact with AbbVie’s scientific and business leaders. AbbVie started sponsoring the MBC BioLabs Golden Ticket program in 2018 to support high-potential and innovative early-stage biotech companies in their efforts to accelerate the development of new therapies to improve human health. AbbVie has awarded six Golden Tickets in three years.

A team of AbbVie scientific and business leaders selected the 2020 AbbVie Golden Ticket winners based on the strength and novelty of their scientific rationale, and potential to transform patient care.

“We are excited to enable Bacchus Therapeutics and PTM Therapeutics in pursuing promising science in cancer and autoimmune disease, respectively,” said Adam Houghton, AbbVie Vice President, Corporate Strategy Office & Head of AbbVie Ventures. “Fostering early-stage innovation through active venture investing and start-up support is critical to the future of healthcare. Congratulations to both companies and to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are building them.”

Bacchus Therapeutics is a biotech company developing novel compounds that exploit cancer’s hypermetabolic state by targeting cancer-specific metabolic pathways. Our proprietary compounds cause regression of incurable MYC cancers and prolong survival in our preclinical mouse models bearing human tumors.

“Bacchus is excited to be awarded the AbbVie Golden Ticket and to be a part of the MBC BioLabs family. This is the kind of opportunity and support that every startup hopes for,” said Arvin Gouw, founding CEO of Bacchus Therapeutics.

PTM Therapeutics is focused on developing antibody therapeutics targeting post-translational modifications including glycans. Its primary asset is being developed for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Unlike existing IBD therapies PTM’s program does not directly target the immune system but instead, promotes intestinal mucosal wound healing.

“We are delighted to be selected for the 2020 AbbVie Golden Ticket. Being a part of the creative and innovative spirit of the MBC BioLabs community will help accelerate our research and development activities. Also, we are looking to forward to collaborative interactions with the AbbVie team and appreciate their continued commitment to transformational therapeutics in the IBD field,” said Jennifer Cheng, CEO of PTM Therapeutics.

“Startups must relentlessly focus on what matters most. With state-of-the-art infrastructure already in place, MBC BioLabs’ flexible rent want you need when you need it model enables new companies to start experiments in their first week, or even on the first day, rather than the first year because they don’t need to expend time and energy on operational issues like equipment set-up or permitting,” said Doug Crawford, general manager at MBC BioLabs. “We are excited about our on-going partnership with AbbVie as it continues to enable future biotech leaders, and provides our entrepreneurial scientists with access to expert scientific and strategic guidance.”

About AbbVie

AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women’s health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About MBC BioLabs

MBC BioLabs is dedicated to helping life-science startups succeed. By renting space as small as a single bench and providing these entrepreneurial scientists with access to millions of dollars of equipment, we allow companies to be fast, focused, and frugal. We now have two sites: one in the Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco and a new campus in San Carlos. Each site has a complete molecular biology core facility that allows companies to do experiments on day one, not year one. We have partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and life-science companies as well as a built-in venture capital firm, Mission Bay Capital. These partnerships provide our entrepreneurs with valuable insights about where to focus their efforts and accelerates the innovation pipeline. Our labs have truly enabled awesome: since our opening in 2013 we have helped launch and grow 173 companies. These companies have brought 53 programs to the clinic, produced 13 approved diagnostics, and raised over $4.5 billion!