안녕하세요 보스턴 임박사입니다.
오늘 얘기할 내용을 “부러우면 지는거다”에 넣을지, “BIOTECH”에 넣는게 맞을지 고민을 좀 했다가 그래도 BIOTECH이 맞다고 생각을 해서 여기에 글을 쓰게 되었습니다. 그동안은 회사나 VC 위주로 글을 썼다면 이번에는 이런 질문을 하면서 시작해 보려고 합니다.
“새로운 Biotech Platform을 만들기 위해서 최소한의 인원수와 자금은 얼마일까?”
저는 그동안 적어도 새로운 플랫폼 기술을 만들려면 최소 300명의 임직원과 자금력은 적어도 $100Million 이상의 Series A는 필요하다고 생각하고 있었습니다. 그런데 저의 이런 고정관념을 깬 사람이 있습니다. 오늘은 그 분에 대해서 그리고 그 분이 만들어가는 Platform에 대해 얘기해 보려고 합니다. 그 분의 이름은…
Dr. Shakked Omer Halperin 입니다.
이 분에 대한 뉴스기사가 처음으로 뜬 것은 2022년 2월인데요 Dr. Shakked는 UCSF에서 박사학위를 받은 후 동료 3명과 함께 Rewrite Therapeutics를 창업합니다. 이 회사에 투자를 한 VC도 2017년에 $1Million으로 시작한 Civilization Ventures라는 곳인데요 Rewrite에 투자한 총액은 $2.1Million으로 일반적인 플랫폼 기업의 펀딩액수에 비해서는 말도 안되게 적은 금액을 투자했습니다.
Shakked Halperin의 Rewrite Therapeutics의 설립 스토리는 아래의 뉴스에 나타나 있습니다.
Get Me (DNA) Rewrite: Intellia’s First Acquisition Expands CRISPR Toolkit – GEN Edge 2/16/2022
이 회사의 기술은 Dr. Shakked Halperin의 박사학위 논문과 관계가 있습니다. 박사학위 논문은 아래에 링크를 걸었는데요 이전의 Gene Editing이 Double-strand DNA를 절단했다가 붙여야 하기 때문에 그 단계에서 변이가 일어날 수 있는 단점이 있었던 반면 Shakked의 박사논문은 EvolvR이라는 기술로서 DNA polymerase-Nickase를 이용해서 double-starand가 아닌 single-strand DNA를 잇는 기술이라고 할 수 있습니다.
4명의 박사들이 모여서 Rewrite Therapeutics에 IP를 UCSF에서 이전한 후 연구에 전념하고 얻은 연구결과를 임상에 진입시키기 위해 Intellia Therapeutics와 얘기를 하는 과정에서 회사 전체를 팔게 됩니다.
바이오텍 (12) – Intellia Therapeutics In Vivo Gene Editing
BIOTECH (65) – Intellia Therapeutics 3-year strategic priorities
Rewrite Therapeutics에서 $200 Million에 인수한 DNA Writing 기술은 Intellia Therapeutics의 3개년 전략적 우선순위의 항목에도 있습니다.
Rewrite Therapeutics는 2018년에 설립되었고 2년여 펀딩을 받는 시간이 걸려서 2020년초에 Civilization Ventures로 부터 $500K Seed Funding을 받은 후 연구를 시작하고 Seed Funding 금액은 $2.1Million으로 늘어났습니다. Prefix Capital이라는 VC도 함께 참여해서 펀딩을 했습니다.
“Rewrite did not become operational until early 2020, when it secured seed financing. Civilization Ventures led the seed round, which started at $500,000 and increased to $2.1 million, with Prefix Capital also backing the company.
In December 2020, Rewrite received a non-dilutive grant of unspecified amount from the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation, which said at the time it gave the funding “to demonstrate preclinical proof-of-concept for a genome editing treatment for CF.”
From Intellia, Rewrite shareholders will receive $45 million upfront and up to an additional $155 million tied to achieving research and regulatory approval milestones, through a mix of Intellia stock and cash.”
2022년에 Rewrite Therapeutics를 매각한 Dr. Shakked는 Replace Therapeutics라는 새로운 회사를 설립했고 Civilization Ventures는 이 회사에도 투자를 했습니다. 그리고 새해가 되자마자 이 회사는 Tome Biosciences에 매각되었습니다. Replace Therapeutics는 Integrase를 활용한 DNA Writing 기술을 개발했습니다.
Replace’s technology “combines the site-specificity of CRISPR/Cas9 with the writing enzyme DNA ligase to precisely manipulate small DNA sequences,” according to the Tome release.
Newly Launched Tome Biosciences Acquires Replace Therapeutics for $65M – Biospace 1/3/2024
Tome acquires startup Replace, gaining new genome editing tools – Biopharmadive 1/2/2024
이쯤 되면 Dr. Shakked에 대해 궁금해 집니다. 아래 기사는 Shakked에 대해 보다 자세히 소개하고 있습니다.
이 기사를 보니 DNA polymerase를 이용한 DNA Writing 연구주제는 Shakked가 먼저 제안했지만 연구실을 찾기 어려웠던 것 같습니다. John Dueber교수님 연구실에서 밤중이나 주말에만 연구하는 조건으로 이 프로젝트를 시작했다고 합니다.
During his doctoral studies in bioengineering, Halperin pitched a research idea to his advisors: Could CRISPR be tweaked to make targeted changes in DNA without fully cutting DNA strands to avoid safety concerns? And could another element be added to the mix, called a DNA polymerase, that makes new DNA containing an edit at the CRISPR target site?
“It did not fly,” Halperin said, as he rotated through several labs and was assigned to other projects. Eventually, he asked John Dueber, one of his advisors, if he could work nights and weekends on his novel DNA-writing idea. He got the approach to work in bacteria, which turned into his doctorate research. Halperin was the lead author in a paper published in 2018 in Nature, spurring him to form a shell company and acquire the intellectual-property rights.
회사를 설립해서 펀딩을 받은 2020년 pandemic으로 직원 채용을 할 수 없었꼬 결국 혼자서 실험실에서 연구하게 됩니다.
In February 2020, he started working full time as the founding CEO of Rewrite at 28 years old. Right away, growth plans were thrown out as the COVID-19 pandemic took off.
“Hiring plans just got trashed,” Halperin said. “I just bunkered down and was labbing solo around the clock.”
CEO가 되면서 Shakked는 비즈니스에 눈을 뜨게 되었다고 합니다.
As a first-time CEO, Halperin said he learned a lot about the business side of running a company, particularly in thinking about compensation and financing as well as pitching the company’s story to potential investors and employees. Overall, Rewrite has four full-time employees working as scientists, along with two part-time employees who run operations and business development.
David Shaeffer 교수님의 도움도 얘기를 하는군요.
Having the Berkeley professor David Schaffer as an advisor and cofounder also helped, Halperin said.
“I was a nobody, and I think Intellia’s CSO Laura was fond of Dave’s work, and maybe that ended up being kind of a little wedge,” he said.
시리즈 A를 하자마자 Intellia가 Buyout을 결정했다고 합니다.
After a few months, Halperin shared with Intellia that he was raising a Series A round. The startup was preparing to close $35 million in financing from blue-chip investors, and Halperin was planning on entering exclusive negotiations on November 1 to secure that funding. All of a sudden, Intellia was interested in not just a partnership but a buyout.
“When we communicated about the Series A coming to a close, there was all of a sudden interest to discuss acquisition,” he said. “It was very surprising to us. It wasn’t our intention whatsoever.”
In deciding between the Series A and acquisition, Halperin said he talked with his employees and investors about what they saw as a good outcome. Facing a firm deadline in raising a Series A, Halperin said they didn’t have enough time to run a bidding process in which M&A experts would reach out to other potential buyers to see whether there was other interest. Ultimately he decided it was the right move for him and the company to sell.
그리고 이미 Replace Therapeutics를 시작할 생각과 연구과제를 생각하고 있다고 얘기합니다.
He will consult for Intellia on Rewrite’s work, but he’s mainly focused on his next company, which he said is planning to leapfrog a lot of the challenges facing the gene-editing field. The ultimate goal, he said, is to have a system that can make any modification you’d like to the genome.
As for details — even the startup’s working name — he declined to share, but he said he’s looking forward to building on his experience running Rewrite.
“I’m excited to take the lessons learned and go again,” he said.
2022년 2월에 Intellia가 Rewrite를 Buyout했는데요 2024년 1월 3일에 Replace Therapeutics가 Tome Biosciences에 매각되었습니다.
지금도 새로운 일을 하고 있겠죠? 기대가 많이 되고 배울점이 많다고 생각합니다.
BOSTON DR LIM 