OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, January 4, 2022 – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Wheeler Bio, a biomanufacturing company built to accelerate the translation of therapeutic innovation into clinical impact, announced today the closing of a $14M Seed financing round. The round was co-led by Echo Investment Capital and Alloy Therapeutics, with participation from Floating Point and Presbyterian Health Foundation.
The new funding will be used by Wheeler Bio to expand its team and make its Portable CMC™ solution more broadly available, partnering with more preclinical CROs and antibody drug developers. Through parallel integration with preclinical drug discovery groups, Portable CMC™ provides a faster, easier, and more predictable discovery-to-IND path for drug developers.
“We are delighted to have the continued support of partners and investors as we work to solve the biggest problems associated with tech transfer,” said Dr. Jesse McCool, Co-founder and CEO of Wheeler Bio. “With Portable CMC™, we can empower preclinical CROs to halve the time to clinical supply for their customers, while significantly de-risking program onboarding for our CDMO partners. This means more medicines reach more patients faster.”
Wheeler Bio CEO Jesse McCool
By integrating discovery capabilities with Wheeler Bio’s open source biomanufacturing processes and platforms, preclinical CRO partners can extend their offering beyond drug candidate lead selection, providing drug developers with a clearer path to IND clinical manufacturing. Wheeler’s first partner is Alloy Therapeutics—a Boston-headquartered biotechnology company providing antibody discovery platforms and services to a community of more than 100 developers.
Errik Anderson, Founder and CEO of Alloy Therapeutics, said, “We are very enthusiastic about our partnership with Wheeler Bio because its unique approach and high-quality Portable CMC™ services address the problems our partners face regularly when moving into the IND-enabling phase. Differentiating speed, predictability, and cost benefits amplify our mission to democratize access to foundational drug development capabilities and reduce barriers in the pursuit of making medicine.”
Scientific and operation leadership for the development and implementation of Portable CMC™ falls to Dr. Stephen Hamilton, Chief Technical Officer of Wheeler Bio, and a veteran of 20 years in industrial R&D and platform engineering. Dr. Hamilton said, “Over the course of my career, I have experienced firsthand the complexities of tech transfer and outsourcing. I am therefore very excited by the unique model that Wheeler Bio is implementing because it provides the next-generation CDMO services that will be critical to the success of emerging biopharma.”
More information on Wheeler Bio and Portable CMC™ can be found on its website at www.wheelerbio.com.
About Wheeler Bio
Wheeler Bio is a biomanufacturing company designed to accelerate the translation of therapeutic innovation into clinical impact. Through parallel integration with pre-clinical discovery, Wheeler is democratizing access to comprehensive discovery-to-IND programs with its rapid, high-quality biomanufacturing and Portable CMC™ platform. With an initial focus on antibody therapeutics, the company is partnered with Alloy Therapeutics to offer emerging biopharma companies a faster and more predictable path to the clinic by avoiding the critical gaps between discovery and early development. Wheeler’s unique partnering model is built on shared success, creating a singular focus on quality, speed, and lasting collaborations. Wheeler Bio is headquartered in Oklahoma City with pilot labs located inside Alloy Therapeutics’ Boston, MA Facility. Learn more by visiting wheelerbio.com and follow Wheeler Bio on LinkedIn.
About Alloy Therapeutics
Alloy Therapeutics is a biotechnology ecosystem company empowering the global scientific community to make better medicines together. Through a community of partners, Alloy democratizes access to tools, technologies, services, and company creation capabilities that are foundational for discovering and developing therapeutic biologics. The company facilitates affordable, non-exclusive access to the entire drug discovery community from academic scientists, small and medium biotech, to the largest biopharma. Alloy’s lead offering, the ATX-Gx™ platform, is a human therapeutic antibody discovery platform consisting of a growing suite of proprietary transgenic mice strains. Alloy is a leader in bispecific antibody discovery and engineering services, utilizing its proprietary ATX-CLC common light chain platform integrating novel transgenic mice and phage display. Alloy is headquartered in Boston, MA with labs in Cambridge, UK; Basel, CH; San Francisco, CA; and Athens, GA. As a reflection of Alloy’s relentless commitment to the scientific community, Alloy reinvests 100% of its revenue in innovation and access to innovation. Join the Alloy Therapeutics community by visiting alloytx.com, following Alloy on LinkedIn, or scheduling a 15-minute chat with Alloy’s Founder and CEO at alloytx.com/ceo.
About Echo Investment Capital
Echo Investment Capital is a multi-disciplinary investment firm with experience managing more than $1.2 billion in capital across industries. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Echo consists of a team of strategic investors and builders funding innovation in life sciences, entertainment, real estate, and energy. The team focuses on identifying strong investment opportunities and connecting them with often overlooked midwestern assets to unlock differentiated opportunities and returns for investors. Echo invests in and builds best-in-class companies by combining a globally connected sourcing network, deep diligence practices, and a strong operational backbone to support its portfolio. Learn more about Echo by visiting echoinvestmentcap.com or following Echo on LinkedIn.
Contact:
Kavita Saini
info@wheelerbio.com
