Exclusive: Danaher’s venture arm backs cell therapy manufacturing startup co-founded by Carl June

Danaher Ventures, the venture arm of the life sciences giant Danaher, is investing $18 million into a startup co-founded by Carl June that aims to make cheaper, faster cell therapies.

Novalis LifeSciences and Marshall Wace also participated in the seed round for BlueWhale Bio, which comes out of the University of Pennsylvania.

James Riley

June, whose research led to the development of CAR-T cell therapy to treat cancer, and Penn professor James Riley are co-inventors of the technology that is the basis of BlueWhale’s platform. June is also a member of Danaher’s scientific advisory board.

June told Endpoints News in an email that BlueWhale’s technology acts like a “coach” to make cells “fitter and better prepared for the manufacturing process.”

“To lower manufacturing costs, we need automation, shorter production times, fewer reagents, and more efficient patient procedures,” he said. “We are working on approaches to reduce the frequency of handling cells during production. This will be conducive to automation.”

BlueWhale’s technology aims to more efficiently use material gathered from patients’ tumors. One of the challenges to the promise of cell therapies is the time-consuming and expensive manufacturing process.

“We need dramatic changes in how we manufacture cells. Pain points are high costs, long production times, low yields and limited cell viability after production. This is where BlueWhale Bio can contribute and help researchers and process developers improve manufacturing,” June added.

Peter Keller

BlueWhale’s CEO is Peter Keller, who stepped into his role this month, according to his LinkedIn profile. He most recently was CEO of Monopteros Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based cancer biotech.

Keller told Endpoints that the seed funding will go toward building out BlueWhale’s lab space in Philadelphia, transferring the technology from the University of Pennsylvania and hiring. Decisions about any manufacturing facility construction will be “in the future.”

The company currently has four employees but is looking to grow to 20. Keller said BlueWhale is starting to talk to potential customers, but the technology transfer is the next step for the startup.

“Technology licensed from Penn and elsewhere will have us soon ready for early-stage clinical manufacturing. We are looking to bring this technology in-house, replicate it, then optimize and scale it,” Keller said.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Danaher was interested in acquiring contract manufacturer Catalent, though the deal never came to fruition.

manufacturing
therapeutics
cell therapy
biotech
life sciences