BOSTON & OKLAHOMA CITY– Alloy Therapeutics and Echo Investment Capital today announced the formation of Wheeler Bio, a new biomanufacturing company built to accelerate the translation of therapeutic innovation into clinical impact. Wheeler’s comprehensive discovery-to-IND programs are designed to provide emerging biopharma companies a faster and more predictable path to the clinic.
With an initial focus on antibody therapeutics, Wheeler’s biomanufacturing programs will seamlessly integrate with Alloy Therapeutic’s preclinical antibody platforms and discovery capabilities. Wheeler’s state-of-the-art development and cGMP operations and business headquarters are located in Oklahoma City, OK and are supported by a pilot lab inside Alloy’s Boston, MA facility.
“Accelerating the translation of therapeutic innovation into clinical impact in the biopharma industry requires new kinds of biomanufacturing businesses. We created Wheeler Bio to provide best-in-class biomanufacturing speed, capabilities, and service to the next generation of drug developers,” stated Dr. Jesse McCool, co-founder and CEO of Wheeler. “Through our parallel integration with discovery and unique partnering model, we will be able to offer customers groundbreaking turnaround times at fair prices.”
“Finding a CDMO that cares as much about your preclinical batches as your commercial batches is a challenge we regularly face in drug development. Alloy is excited to partner with Wheeler and is confident that Jesse and his team will deliver the turnkey and high-quality CMC services that Alloy’s ecosystem of partners require to achieve their clinical goals,” said Errik Anderson, Founder and CEO of Alloy Therapeutics. “What Wheeler is building aligns completely with Alloy’s mission to democratize access to foundational drug development technologies and capabilities.”
Wheeler launched its Boston-based operations in Q1 2021 and will open its 35,000 sq. ft. cGMP Oklahoma City facility in Q4 2022. Through its partnership with Echo Investment Capital, Wheeler will have preferred access to expand its biomanufacturing offering to commercial scale production in the recently announced 400,000 sq. ft. manufacturing complex in the Oklahoma City Innovation District led by commercial real estate developers Richard Tanenbaum and Mark Beffort.
“Oklahoma City’s investment in bioscience and workforce development over the last 30 years has allowed Echo to rapidly enter the biomanufacturing arena with a compelling offering that connects coastal biopharmaceutical companies to critical resources at industry leading customer-first terms,” said Christian Kanady, Founding Partner of Echo Investment Capital. “Our close affiliation with the OKC Innovation District and the greater healthcare ecosystem allows us to connect Wheeler’s customers with exceptional development and clinical resources like Wheeler, Stephenson Cancer Center, Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, and Oklahoma Children’s Hospital.”
