About Us
A Leader in Innate Immunity
At IFM Therapeutics, LLC, we are transforming immunotherapy to improve the lives of patients with serious diseases. We focus on developing small molecule drugs that precisely target the innate immune system, the body’s first line of immunological response.
The majority of advances in immunotherapy have focused largely on targeting the adaptive immune system, which historically has been the best-characterized part of the immune system. While many of these approaches can work well, the benefit is seen only in a small number of diseases and over time, patients can lose response to these therapies. However, our understanding of the innate immune system has matured sufficiently, that we can now think about exploiting this biology to advance a new generation of medicines for inflammatory disorders and cancer. IFM Therapeutics, LLC has brought together the key academic thought leaders and advisors in this field, along with an exceptionally talented group of pharmaceutical scientists and executives, to make this goal a reality.
IFM Therapeutics, LLC was formed following the acquisition of IFM Therapeutics by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2017. IFM Therapeutics, LLC retained its personnel and facilities, as well as its remaining research programs focused on curbing immune responses that lead to inflammatory diseases and fibrosis.
By focusing on innate immunity, IFM Therapeutics, LLC is looking to solve the limitations faced by current immunotherapies by dramatically increasing the number of patients that benefit from treatment and extending the duration of therapeutic response.
About the IFM Model
IFM is pursuing a number of separate programs, each targeting key control nodes of the innate immune system. IFM places each program (or set of related programs) in its own dedicated, independently financed, R&D-focused subsidiary company, which is supported by the common infrastructure, management team and resources of the IFM enterprise. This model allows IFM to provide more focused research and development support to each program, while also distributing shared central resources among subsidiary companies to maintain a lean, capital-efficient operating structure.
IFM was formed following the acquisition of the original IFM Therapeutics, Inc. by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2017. IFM retained its personnel and facilities, as well as all of its remaining research programs in innate immunity. To-date, the Company has established two subsidiaries: IFM Tre, which launched in July 2018 and was subsequently acquired by Novartis in May 2019, and IFM Due, which launched in February 2019.
Experts with an Unprecedented Track Record
Since the inception of IFM, we have advanced multiple, novel programs from discovery to first-in-human studies and beyond.
The IFM Team Has an Unprecedented Track Record
Among the team's achievements in the company's first 3.5 years has been the progression of 3 novel programs from the standing start through to the clinic and the closing of 2 major deals.
2015
October
IFM founded by G. Glick and seed-financed by Atlas Venture to discover agonists of NLRP3 for cancer.
2016
FEBRUARY
Novel and proprietary NLRP3 agonist leads identified
MAY
Novel and proprietary STING agonists discovered
JUNE
IFM's $27M Series A closed
2017
SEPTEMBER
Preclinical PoC for both NLRP3 and STING agonists demonstrated
SEPTEMBER
$2.32B sale of IFM Uno to BMS closed; IFM Therapeutics, LLC created as a spin-out, and IFM Tre launched
2018
FEBRUARY
BMS dosed initial patient with first-in-class NLRP3 agonist, IFM-1222
JULY
IFM Tre's $31M Series A financing closed (focus on NLRP3 antagonist)
2019
FEBRUARY
IFM Due launched (focus on cGAS/STING antagonists)
MARCH
IFM Tre dosed initial subject with first-in-class NLRP3 antagonist, IFM-2427
APRIL
BMS dosed first patient with STING agonist, IFM-1364
MAY
$1.575B sale of IFM Tre to Novartis closed
NOVEMBER
IFM Quattro and IFM Discovery launched with $55.5M financing from Omega Funds, Atlas Venture and Abingworth
Meet Our Leadership Team
We have assembled a tailor-made team with proven expertise in developing transformative medicines that will further our goal of bringing the most promising immunotherapies to patients with inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Martin Seidel
Dennis Dean
William R. Roush
Lina Gugucheva
Ed Olhava
Gary D. Glick
Martin Seidel
Jean-François Formela
Vincent Miles
John Leonard
Shelley Chu
Michael Gladstone
Paulina Hill
Gary D. Glick
Luigi Franchi
Matthias Geyer
Eicke Latz
Anthony Opipari
Andrea Ablasser
Jasmin Kümmerle-Deschner, M.D.
Head, Division of Pediatric Rheumatology and autoinflammation reference center Tübingen, Department of Pediatrics at the University Hospital of Tübingen, Germany
Peter Libby, M.D.
Cardiovascular Specialist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Giovanni Monteleone, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Gastroenterology, Chief of the Gastroenterology and Endoscopic Division, Systems Medicine Department, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
Markus F. Neurath, M.D.
Chair of Internal Medicine, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
D. Brent Polk, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California
David T. Rubin, M.D.
Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine, Section Chief, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Nutrition and Co-Director of the Digestive Diseases Center, University of Chicago
Arun J. Sanyal, M.D.
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine and Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Virginia Commonwealth University
Scott B. Snapper , M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Michael Heneka, M.D.
Director, Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry, University Hospital of Bonn, Germany
Hal Hoffman, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, University of California, San Diego
Howard Kauffman, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Professor of Surgery and Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Saurabh Saha, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Global Head of Translational Medicine, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Diane Mathis, PhD (Chair)
Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Andrea Ablasser, MD
Assistant Professor, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Erick M. Carreira, PhD
Head, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich
Douglas T. Fearon, MD FRS FMedSci
Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Walter B. Wriston Professor of Pancreatic Cancer Research, Weill Cornell Medicine
Emeritus Sheila Joan Smith Professor of Immunology, University of Cambridge
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Nir Hacohen, PhD
Director, Center for Cancer Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Broad Institute
William L. Jorgensen, PhD
Sterling Professor of Chemistry, Yale University
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Jonathan C. Kagan, PhD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Shwachman Chair in Gastroenterology, Staff Scientist, Boston Children's Hospital
Vito Palombella, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Surface Oncology
Alexander Rudensky, PhD
Chairman, Immunology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
Tri-Institutional Professor at MSKCC, The Rockefeller University and Cornell University
Member, National Academy of Sciences
Awards and Nominations
At IFM Therapeutics, we're proud of our team's achievements in science and industry.
