- National competition, in collaboration with adMare BioInnovations, demonstrates AbbVie's commitment to a thriving biotech ecosystem in Quebec.
- Award provides RIME Therapeutics with a year of laboratory and office space, including access to shared equipment and services at the adMare Innovation Centre in Montreal, as well as mentorship from AbbVie’s scientific and business leaders.
- RIME Therapeutics to impact inflammation and immunology research and innovation.
MONTREAL, April 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), jointly with adMare BioInnovations, today recognized RIME Therapeutics as the recipient of the AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award, a prize designed to help foster innovation and support growth in Quebec’s life sciences sector.
Founded in 2025, RIME Therapeutics is a Montreal-based start-up focused on developing a peptide-based drug discovery platform designed to identify protein-protein interaction targets and accelerate the discovery of therapies for inflammation and immunology. The company impressed the selection committee with its function-first disruptive approach, merging target discovery with simultaneous hit identification, and designed to address novel T cell biology with broad therapeutic applicability.
An environment that values innovation is essential to foster growth in Canada’s life sciences sector. Enabling partnerships and offering the right infrastructure, mentorship and collaboration to support early-stage biotech entrepreneurs play a critical role in advancing the next generation of breakthrough therapies for people living with devastating diseases in Canada.
The AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award supports early-stage biotechnology companies with the potential to generate transformational therapies in areas that align with AbbVie’s therapeutic areas of focus, including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and aesthetics. Funded by AbbVie, the award will provide RIME Therapeutics with one year of laboratory and office space at the adMare Innovation Centre in Montreal, including access to shared equipment and services. The company will also benefit from the expertise and mentorship of AbbVie's scientific and business leaders to help accelerate the advancement of its research.
"We are honoured to receive the AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award to further support our work at RIME," said Michael Mee, CEO at RIME Therapeutics and Managing Director of Pre-Amp, Amplitude Ventures’ company creation studio. "Our Disruptide Platform is built to solve one of drug discovery's most persistent challenges, bridging the gap between knowing what to drug and knowing how to drug it. With the support of AbbVie and adMare BioInnovations, we are accelerating our path from novel biology to tractable chemistry, moving towards a differentiated pipeline of medicines for patients."
"This award reflects our focus on helping create and scale globally competitive Canadian life sciences companies," said Matthew Carlyle, President and CEO of adMare BioInnovations. "We are pleased to partner with AbbVie to support promising biotech innovators by providing access to world-class infrastructure, expertise and mentorship so they can focus on advancing breakthrough discoveries, building value and scaling their business here in Canada."
"The AbbVie Biotech Innovators Award underscores AbbVie’s commitment to fostering a thriving life sciences ecosystem in Quebec and across Canada," said Stéphanie Sauvageau, Head of Medical, AbbVie Canada. "By supporting early-stage biotech companies like RIME Therapeutics, we aim to accelerate scientific innovation and advance solutions to some of the most pressing health challenges facing Canadians."
About AbbVie
AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions 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, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.
For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.ca. Follow AbbVie Canada on Instagram or find us on LinkedIn.
About adMare BioInnovations
adMare BioInnovations is Canada’s life sciences company creation engine, focused on building and scaling strong, investable companies. Our unique model identifies breakthrough innovations addressing unmet patient needs and supports early company creation with early-stage capital, commercial R&D and IP and business development expertise. This approach helps establish the scientific validation, value, and operating foundations needed to build globally competitive Canadian life science companies. To date, adMare has helped create 39 companies that have attracted $2.5 billion in risk capital, achieved a combined value of $5.8 billion, and created approximately 1,000 jobs.
adMare also provides more than 200,000 square feet of turnkey lab facilities and delivers industry-ready talent and executive leadership development programs to help Canadian life science companies scale and succeed. Learn more at www.admarebio.com.
About RIME Therapeutics
RIME Therapeutics is a Montreal-based drug discovery company bridging the gap between target identification and chemical tractability using the company's function-first Disruptide Platform. Integrating human genetics, perturbation biology, and AI, RIME scans functional drug pocket space, simultaneously discovering and validating novel intracellular targets and delivering functional chemical hits against them, with the goal of building a differentiated pipeline of medicines. Follow us on LinkedIn @RIME Therapeutics or visit rimetherapeutics.com.
Media Inquiries:
Dominique TouchetteBethany Moir Lead, CommunicationsSenior Director, Public Affairs AbbVieadMare BioInnovations [email protected] [email protected]