Callio Therapeutics, a biotech company dual-headquartered in Seattle and Singapore, recently launched from stealth with $187 million in Series A funding. The round, led by Frazier Life Sciences, will allow the company to achieve clinical proof-of-concept for its lead program.
Aiming to realize multi-payload antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, as a way to transform cancer patient outcomes, Callio Therapeutics develops ADCs featuring differentiated payload and linker technologies. Its solutions allow for the targeted delivery of multiple agents to tumor cells, aiming to overcome the limitations of existing single-payload therapies. The company’s lead program is a HER2-targeted dual-payload ADC.
“Multi-payload ADCs have the potential to enable the targeted delivery of rational drug combinations to cancer cells, and may provide significantly enhanced efficacy,” Piers Ingram, CEO and co-founder of Callio Therapeutics, said in a statement. “This new generation of ADC therapies may meaningfully improve outcomes for patients.”
Alongside the capital raise, Callio Therapeutics entered an agreement for its technology and programs to be exclusively in-licensed from Singapore-based Hummingbird Bioscience.
