First Logica-identified candidate marks a progression-based milestone in ongoing partnership with Pioneering Medicines, Flagship Pioneering’s in-house drug development unit

WILMINGTON, Mass. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 25, 2025-- Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and Valo Health, Inc. today announced the identification of an advanceable product candidate for the treatment of different forms of lupus and other autoimmune indications with significant unmet need. The discovery is the first using Logica^®, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug development solution that translates biological insights into optimized preclinical assets.

“Identification of this first lead candidate provides proof-of-concept for Logica as an engine to expedite and enhance drug discovery in a critical therapeutic area,” said Professor Julie Frearson, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Charles River. “Together with our partners at Valo Health and through our ongoing collaboration with Flagship’s Pioneering Medicines, we look forward to further leveraging the power of Logica to advance this program into lead optimization.”

Logica, the result of a strategic partnership between Charles River and Valo Health, is the industry’s first computation-powered, unified target-to-candidate offering. Logica leverages the integration of Valo Health’s AI-powered Opal Computational Platform™ and Charles River’s leading expertise in drug discovery and preclinical development.

A single integrated offering, Logica transforms the process of drug discovery by seamlessly translating targets to candidate nomination under a partnering business model. The Logica Advanceable Lead (Logica-AL) program integrates Valo’s DNA-encoded libraries and Opal Computational Platform with Charles River’s expertise in high-throughput screening to produce potent advanceable leads. The Logica Candidate (Logica-C) platform uses those leads and trained predictive models to rapidly advance a clinical program to deliver a candidate that will ultimately be ready for IND-enabling studies.

“We entered our collaboration with Charles River and Valo with a shared goal of accelerating the drug discovery process, and of expediting the development of critically needed therapies for patients with limited or no treatment options,” said Luisa Salter-Cid, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Pioneering Medicines. “Logica’s early success in identifying a potential therapy for an autoimmune disease has built confidence in that shared goal, and we are excited to continue working with the team as our program progresses.”

About Charles River

Charles River provides essential products and services to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, government agencies, and leading academic institutions around the globe accelerate their research and drug development efforts. Charles River’s dedicated employees are focused on providing clients with exactly what they need to improve and expedite the discovery, early-stage development and safe manufacture of new therapies for the patients who need them. To learn more about Charles River’s unique portfolio and breadth of services, visit www.criver.com.

About Valo Health

Valo Health, Inc is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to better learn from the patient experience to discover and develop better medicines at greater speed and scale. The company’s Opal Platform™ is a human-centric, AI-driven drug development engine that uses AI to identify and validate novel drug targets using real-world data and human models to rapidly discover and develop small molecule therapies against those targets with more predictable safety and efficacy. Founded by Flagship Pioneering and headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Valo also has offices in New York, N.Y. and Tel Aviv, Israel.To learn more, visit valo​health​.com.

About Flagship Pioneering and Pioneering Medicines

Flagship Pioneering invents and builds bioplatform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $60 billion in aggregate value. Flagship is operating with $14 billion of assets under management as of its latest capital raise, announced in July 2024. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises over 40 companies, including Foghorn Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FHTX), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), Generate Biomedicines, Inari, Indigo Agriculture, and Tessera Therapeutics.

Pioneering Medicines, Flagship Pioneering’s in house drug development unit, is dedicated to conceiving and developing a broad portfolio of life-changing treatments for patients built from Flagship’s innovative platforms. Harnessing the drug development expertise of its team together with the power of Flagship's multiple scientific platforms, Pioneering Medicines explores and identifies new product concepts which are then advanced jointly with Flagship’s bioplatform companies. Within Flagship’s Innovation Supply Chain partnerships, Pioneering Medicines works with external collaborators to apply its unique approach to partners’ R&D priorities. These partnerships are highly co-creative strategic alliances that accelerate therapeutic innovation by bringing together partners spanning the full spectrum of drug discovery, development, and production.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250325969918/en/

Charles River Investor Contact:
Todd Spencer,
Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations
781.222.6455
todd.spencer@crl.com

Charles River Media Contact:
Amy Cianciaruso
Corporate Vice President & Chief Communications Officer
+1-781-222-6168
amy.cianciaruso@crl.com

Valo Health Media Contact
SmithSolve
Corey Carmichael
(862) 260-7929
corey.carmichael@smithsolve.com

Flagship Pioneering Media Contact:
Amy Lyons
Senior Director of Communications
781.696.1766
alyons@flagshippioneering.com

Source: Charles River Laboratories International, Inc.