Boulevard Bio, a new startup co-founded by pioneering autoimmune disease researcher Georg Schett, officially launched Wednesday with $65 million in its coffers and three experimental drugs. BLVD-101, by comparison, could be dosed every 12 weeks, potentially freeing patients “of the tremendous burden that they carry in autoimmune diseases,” said Boulevard CEO Mahesh Karande. In targeting these B cell-driven diseases, Boulevard is capitalizing on scientific progress its co-founder Schett helped usher forward. Their findings kicked off a flurry of investments in autoimmune cell therapies and, increasingly since then, multi-pronged antibody drugs designed for the same purpose. But to Karande, those deals are evidence of the approach’s promise in treating autoimmune diseases.