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Resilience Launches To Change The Future Of Medicine Through Manufacturing Innovation

Written by Resilience | Nov 23, 2020 4:00:00 PM
  • First-of-its-kind biopharmaceutical manufacturing and technology company broadens access to novel therapies and vaccines while protecting supply chains against disruption.
  • RESILIENCE will invest heavily in developing powerful new manufacturing technologies across multiple therapeutic modalities, including cell and gene therapies, viral vectors, vaccines, and proteins.
  • Company led by highly accomplished team of executives, Board of Directors, and advisors with experience at the highest levels of business, the biopharmaceutical industry, academia, and government.
  • Company Founded by ARCH Venture Partners’ Robert Nelsen has raised over $800 million in capital, including from co-founder 8VC.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. and BOSTON, Mass.—Nov. 23, 2020—RESILIENCE (National Resilience, Inc.), a new company building the world’s most advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem, announced its launch today.

The company will actively invest in developing powerful new technologies to manufacture complex medicines that are defining the future of therapeutics, including cell and gene therapies, viral vectors, vaccines, and proteins. In doing so, it seeks to overcome one of the biggest challenges the biopharmaceutical industry is facing in pioneering novel treatment modalities – manufacturing. RESILIENCE will dramatically increase overall production capacity for these modalities, ensuring that important medicines are accessible to all patients in need and protecting against supply chain disruption.

“We created RESILIENCE to reimagine biopharmaceutical manufacturing through unprecedented investment in technology and a best-in-class team to execute our vision,” said Robert Nelsen, RESILIENCE founder, Chairman of the Board, and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. “COVID-19 has exposed critical vulnerabilities in medical supply chains, and today’s manufacturing can’t keep up with scientific innovation, medical discovery, and the need to rapidly produce and distribute critically important drugs at scale. We are committed to tackling these huge problems with a whole new business model.”

Company Focus

RESILIENCE seeks to address today’s challenges while investing in the future of U.S.-led biopharmaceutical innovation. RESILIENCE will offer customized and scalable processes, short lead times, the highest quality and regulatory capabilities, and world-class manufacturing facilities. It will serve partners of all sizes, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, independent research organizations, and government programs. By enabling complex medicine manufacturing that is faster, more flexible, and less risky, RESILIENCE empowers partners to focus on generating discoveries that improve medical outcomes and save patients’ lives.

“Our aim with RESILIENCE is to improve manufacturing of breakthrough medicines so that they are more accessible to patients and to foster scientific innovation that makes new modalities of medicine possible,” said RESILIENCE Co-Founder and CEO Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D. “By providing improved process platforms and the highest quality manufacturing network, RESILIENCE has been designed to help society meet the challenges of tomorrow, whether that’s the next pandemic or high demand for a great new medicine. I am incredibly proud to lead a team of extraordinary professionals with deep and diverse talent to build a more resilient future.”

RESILIENCE has raised over $800 million of capital following the recent Series B raise of approximately $750 million, not tied to milestones, from investors that collectively manage over $5 trillion. Led by ARCH Venture Partners and 8VC with participation by GV and NEA, investors include public mutual funds, some of the largest U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies, foundations, family offices, and pension funds, among others.

“It is critical that we adopt solutions that will protect the manufacturing supply chain, and provide more certainty around drug development and the ability to scale up the manufacturing of safe, effective but also more complex products that science is making possible,” said Scott Gottlieb, M.D., former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and member of the RESILIENCE Board of Directors. “RESILIENCE will enable these solutions by combining cutting edge technology, an unrivaled pool of talent, and the industry’s first shared service business model. Similar to Amazon Web Services, RESILIENCE will empower drug developers with the tools to more fully align discovery, development, and manufacturing; while offering new opportunities to invest in downstream innovations in formulation and manufacturing earlier, while products are still being conceived and developed.”

Leadership and Advisors

The company, which will span the U.S., Canada, and partner nations, is helmed by executives, a Board of Directors, and advisors with experience at the highest levels of business, the biopharmaceutical industry, academia, and government.

“We are excited by the challenge of radically improving biomanufacturing technologies,” said Patrick Y. Yang, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of RESILIENCE. “We aim to create a trusted biopharmaceutical technology company that can reliably and efficiently produce new medicines. RESILIENCE will invest heavily in next generation capabilities and in its people to ensure that great medicines are made in time and at scale for the patients.”

Founding Executive Team:

  • Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D. — CEO; former Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering; COO of Takeda Vaccines; CEO of Novavax
  • Sandy Mahatme, LL.M. — President, COO & CFO; former CFO and Chief Business Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics; SVP Finance & Corporate Development at Celgene
  • Patrick Y. Yang, Ph.D. — Vice Chairman; former EVP at Juno Therapeutics; EVP & Global Head of Technical Operations at Roche/Genentech

Founding Board of Directors:

  • Robert Nelsen — Chairman; Managing Director and Co-Founder, ARCH Venture Partners
  • Patrick Y. Yang, Ph.D. — Vice Chairman; former EVP at Juno Therapeutics; EVP & Global Head of Technical Operations at Roche/Genentech
  • Rahul Singhvi, Sc.D. — CEO; former Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering; COO of Takeda Vaccines; CEO of Novavax
  • Frances Arnold, Ph.D. — Nobel Laureate; Linus Pauling Professor at the California Institute of Technology
  • George Barrett — Former Chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health
  • Mitchell Daniels, Jr. — Former Governor of Indiana; President of Purdue University
  • Christopher Darby — CEO, In-Q-Tel
  • Susan Desmond-Hellmann, M.D., M.P.H. – Former CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former Chancellor at UCSF; former President of Product Development, Genentech
  • Kaye Foster — Former SVP of Global Human Resources at Onyx Pharmaceuticals; former Global VP of Human Resources at Johnson & Johnson
  • Scott Gottlieb, M.D. — Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Bob Kerrey — Managing Director, Allen & Co; former U.S. Senator and Governor of Nebraska
  • Drew Oetting — Founding Partner, 8VC
  • Denice Torres — Former President of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical and Consumer Companies; former Chief Strategy and Business Transformation Officer, Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices

Advisory Team and Observers

  • Beverly Davidson, Ph.D. – Advisor; Director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics and Chief Scientific Strategy Officer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. – Advisor; Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University; former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); and former FDA Commissioner
  • David Schenkein, M.D. – Board Observer; General Partner, GV; Chairman, Agios

Headquartered in San Diego and Boston, RESILIENCE has secured multiple revenue generating facilities and over 750 thousand square feet of operating space that will come online over the next year.

About RESILIENCE

RESILIENCE (National Resilience, Inc.) is a first-of-its-kind manufacturing and technology company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines and protecting biopharmaceutical supply chains against disruption. Founded in 2020, the company is building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today and tomorrow can be made quickly, safely, and at scale. RESILIENCE will offer the highest quality and regulatory capabilities, and flexible and adaptive facilities to serve partners of all sizes. By continuously advancing the science of biopharmaceutical manufacturing and development, RESILIENCE frees partners to focus on the discoveries that improve patients’ lives.