--- title: 'Industry Daily Summary: What Happened on October 29, 2026' headline: Flagship folds three biotech startups into Etcelera, an AI drugmaker description: Onicor named antifungal and dermatology drug developer Piet De Doncker its CEO. url: https://thebench.bio/news/industry/2026-10-29 topic: industry date: '2026-10-29' covers: - '2026-10-29' date_published: '2026-10-29T12:05:25Z' date_modified: '2026-10-29T12:05:25Z' tags: - Industry sources: 2 publisher: TheBench.Bio --- # Industry Daily Summary: What Happened on October 29, 2026 **Flagship folds three biotech startups into Etcelera, an AI drugmaker** Onicor named antifungal and dermatology drug developer Piet De Doncker its CEO. ## Today in brief Flagship is bringing Etiome, Cellarity and Empress Therapeutics together under Etcelera, which will use AI to develop drugs. [1] Piet De Doncker succeeded Onicor co-founder Ronald van der Geest as CEO. Van der Geest is expected to keep supporting the company’s research. [2] ## Also worth knowing - Etcelera claims its approach can better predict how medicines will perform in humans. [1] - De Doncker has more than 30 years of experience in antifungal and dermatology drug development. At Janssen, he had a leading role in developing itraconazole pulse therapy for fungal nail infections. [2] ## Also published - [8 companies hiring in New York](), BioSpace - [Two Decades!](), Omics! Omics! ## Sources 1. [Flagship blends three biotech startups to form Etcelera](), BioPharma Dive, 2026-10-29 2. [Dermatology leader Doncker is new Onicor CEO](), Pharmafile, 2026-10-29 --- TheBench.Bio wrote this from the reporting cited above, with a language model drafting and editing. [1]: [2]: