October 22, 2015
By Dan Emerson, BioSpace.com News
South San Francisco-based Vitesse Biologics, a new drug-development company formed recently by Baxalta, (Baxter Bioscience when the partnership was announced), Velocity Pharmaceutical Development and the Mayo Clinic, derives its name from the French word for “speed.” Baxalta spun off from Baxter in July and will be managing Vitesse through its venture arm, Baxalta Ventures.
Moving new drugs quickly through the early-stage development process is one of the benefits the partners hope to share from the new collaboration, Velocity’s chief executive officer David Collier and Baxalta Ventures’ managing partner Geeta Vemuri told BioSpace in an exclusive interview. Because the venture is so new, some key decisions on the specifics of upcoming trials are still in the process of being made, Collier indicated. But he and the other partners in Vitesse are anticipating big things from the company.
New Financing
Baxalta and Velocity have not disclosed the amount of financing being provided for the new venture.
What’s the Competition?
Collier notes that there are many competing companies developing antibody therapeutics. “However, we are not aware of any competitors that have a collaborative structure similar to Vitesse,” said Collier.
Collaborative Deals
Vitesse Biologics will function as an “umbrella company” that will spawn five or more micro-pharma companies, each of them pursuing a different drug-development research project, says Collier and Vemuri.
Vitesse will develop treatments in the fields of hematology, oncology and immunology areas which fit Baxalta‘s therapeutic focus.
Collier and Vemuri say the partnership represents a new model for drug development. Each partner will contribute its expertise to the process of target selection, target optimization, expression and product development.
Baxalta will provide global commercialization, antibody and protein development and manufacturing capabilities; Mayo Clinic researchers will execute the Phase I clinical trials; Velocity Pharmaceutical Development will be responsible for target identification, selection of early stage drug candidates and will lead the design and execution of pre-clinical and clinical protocols.
In the Pipeline
Vitesse officials haven’t yet decided which drug candidates will be developed first, or when trials will begin. There are several possible programs under discussion at the moment,” Collier says.
Baxalta has an exclusive option to acquire each such product following the completion of the applicable Phase I trials, the company says.
Collier says the one-company for each drug project approach is “modeled on what we have been doing at Velocity. The concept involves a single team managing a number of drug development projects simultaneously, each housed in its own virtual company. That allows us to fund each one separately, and then if we want to sell one (or more) to a pharma company—ideally Baxalta—it is a very simple thing to do. It’s a simple structure that has worked well for us at Velocity.”
Bringing in Mayo as a partner is “really one of the creative features of of this,” Vemuri says. “They already have a great unit set up that only does drug trials.” Getting a well-respected, academic medical center involved earlier in the drug development process than has typically been the case with pharma companies as they develop drugs will also be a plus, she notes.
“The more brainpower we can bring to drug development projects, the better,” Collier adds. Both in terms of scientific knowledge and also in designing clinical trials, figuring out the end-points and developing bio-markers so you can get a readout on what is happening (during each trial). All of that is a huge advantage in developing a drug.
“We have a number of targets of interest and we are simultaneously talking with folks who have early-stage antibodies that can potentially be acquired into Vitesse,” Collier told BioSpace. “We have a pretty good sense which are the likely programs we will go after, and we hope to get the first one up and running by the end of the year.”
“With executives from each of the three entities involved in the discussions, we have a very seamless partnership, and, overall, it looks like we’re going in the right direction,” Vemuri adds.
What Vitesse Watchers Should Look For
Meanwhile, industry observers are watching and waiting for the initial clinical trial announcements. Vitesse hopes to begin initial proof-of-concept studies later this year or in early 2016.
