Wheeler Bio announces initial closing of Series A round supporting expansion In Oklahoma

Wheeler Bio, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in small-batch clinical production of biologics, announced the first closing of its Series A financing round.

The round was co-led by Charles River Laboratories and Echo Investment Capital with participation from ATUM, Floating Point Advisors, Plains Venture Partners (a subsidiary of i2E) and Pine Ridge Ventures.

Wheeler Bio was formed in 2020 in Oklahoma City to help accelerate the translation of therapeutic innovation to clinical impact by integrating its development platform parallel to drug discovery. They offer a novel pathway for drug developers that is faster, easier and more predictable.

Q&A with Wheeler Bio's Jesse McCool. 

Wheeler Bio is solving the typical momentum drop between discovery and development. This early "translation gap" poses significant challenges for emerging biotechs adding technical, financial and regulatory risks. Wheeler Bio tries to minimize this gap through efficient partnering and the democratization of standardized manufacturing platforms.

"I am thrilled to have the support of investors and partners who agree that innovators need to minimize friction points more than ever before in the face of new market headwinds," said Jesse McCool, co-founder and CEO at Wheeler Bio. "A key part of our thesis has been that by making the clinical manufacturing process more transparent, cost-effective and integrated with coastal drug discovery partners, like Alloy Therapeutics, biotechs will have more opportunities to create clinical impact."

John Loser, managing partner at Floating Point, agrees that "by closing the translation gap between drug discovery and scale-up manufacturing, Wheeler makes bringing novel therapeutics to market faster and more affordable for the next generation of biotech innovators."

Wheeler will use the new funding to expand its state-of-the-art drug substance GMP manufacturing facility in the Ziggurat building in Oklahoma City. Through key strategic partnerships with recognized CRO providers, like Alloy Therapeutics and ATUM, Wheeler Bio will continue building an innovative hub-and-spoke business model that connects cutting-edge biologics discovery technologies with an agile, open-source biomanufacturing platform for GMP clinical trial material.

"Alloy is building an innovative drug discovery ecosystem to empower the global scientific community to make better medicines together. A key part of that is our venture studio, 82VS, which supports the efficient launch of next-generation medicines companies. We are excited about our partnership with Wheeler, which connects our brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs to high quality, pre-competitive small batch manufacturing — ultimately enabling them to move more quickly to the clinic," said Errik Anderson, founder and CEO at Alloy Therapeutics.

Christian Kanady, a founding partner of Echo Investment, said that Wheeler Bio’s success is another step in establishing Oklahoma as a bioscience hub.

"Echo and its partners are focused on connecting companies, capabilities, communities and capital for everyone's benefit," said Kanady. "Investing with respected coastal resources to advance Wheeler Bio's growth is another step forward in connecting Oklahoma with the world and the world with Oklahoma. Together, we are accelerating drug development and unlocking the state's unique potential."

Oklahoma City has long been a production, distribution and business services hub. Key advantages include consistently lower business costs, a ready biomanufacturing workforce, a world-class training network of 16 technology centers, 18 public and private universities, major medical and aerospace research centers, "shovel ready" sites with interstate, rail and runway access, and special incentives.

OKC was recently awarded $35 million by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to further advance the region’s bioscience cluster, including specific funding for biomanufacturing workforce development.

Chamber-led coalition wins $35 million EDA Build Back Better Grant for bioscience development. 

Biosciences in the Oklahoma City region support more than 51,000 jobs and with a total compensation of $2.2 billion. Earlier this year, Bisnow National named Oklahoma City as one of five emerging life-science hubs in the U.S.

Bruce Lawrence, founding partner of Pine Ridge Ventures, further commented, "Pine Ridge Ventures is excited to be participating in Oklahoma's biotech transformation. We appreciate the expertise, vision and other strategic partners that Wheeler Bio is bringing to this space and look forward to Wheeler Bio's continued growth."

That's Nice LLC provided M&A advisory services to Wheeler Bio for the Series A Round.

About Wheeler Bio
Wheeler Bio is a biomanufacturing pioneer, founded by a team of industry experts and strategic investors who believe a different CDMO model is needed to help innovators reach their clinical milestones faster. Wheeler's novel hub-and-spoke operational model, centered in the biomanufacturing metro of Oklahoma City and integrated with discovery CROs, will revolutionize the speed of drug development. Wheeler Bio's technology platform, Portable CMC™, simplifies the path between drug discovery and clinical manufacturing by standardizing and democratizing the innovation-to-impact process. A new bridge for translating discoveries to IND filing, innovators benefit from increased momentum during technology transfer, shorter timelines and lower costs. Join the Wheeler Bio community by visiting www.wheelerbio.com, or following Wheeler Bio on LinkedIn.