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Piers Ingram, CEO of Callio Therapeutics and Hummingbird Bioscience. (Hummingbird Bioscience Photo)
Biotech-focused investment firm Frazier Life Sciences has launched Callio Therapeutics, a cancer treatment startup with headquarters in Seattle and Singapore.
Frazier led a $187 million Series A round, announced Monday, to get the company started.
Callio has an exclusive license to work on cancer treatments that use multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) developed by Hummingbird Bioscience.
Chemotherapy using antibodies to carry multiple payloads to destroy cancer cells is a relatively new and rapidly growing area of research.
In May, Hummingbird Bioscience scientists shared preclinical data with promising results at an annual summit focused on protein and antibody engineering research. The team said that its fourth-generation ADC platform can potentially overcome drug-resistance to cancer treatment and can be fine-tuned to target specific kinds of tumors.
Callio’s initial focus is on a therapy targeting HER2-related breast cancer.
“Multi-payload ADCs have the potential to enable the targeted delivery of rational drug combinations to cancer cells, and may provide significantly enhanced efficacy,” said Callio CEO Piers Ingram, in announcing the new company.
Callio’s management team includes Ingram, Chief Scientific Officer Jerome Boyd-Kirkup and Chief Business Officer Angèle Maki, all of whom come from Singapore-based Hummingbird Bioscience. Dr. Naomi Hunder, Callio’s chief medical officer, was previously at ProfoundBio and Silverback Therapeutics, among other roles.
Frazier is based in Silicon Valley and raised $630 million in October for its latest fund. Frazier has a separate later stage healthcare-focused fund, called Frazier Healthcare Partners, that is in Seattle and recently raised $2.3 billion for its 11th fund.
Callio’s round included significant participation from Jeito Capital along with other life sciences investors: Novo Holdings A/S, Omega Funds, ClavystBio, Platanus, Norwest, Pureos Bioventures, SEEDS Capital and EDBI.
In January, Hummingbird Bioscience granted an exclusive license to Immunome of Bothell, Wash., to develop monoclonal antibodies that are directed to a single target. Clay Siegall, former head of Seagen, is CEO and president of Immunome. Siegal resigned from Seagen in 2022 following an alleged domestic violence incident involving his then-wife.
