Breaking News, Collaborations & Alliances

Charles River, Wheeler Bio Partner to Accelerate Discovery to IND Submission

Agreement combines Charles River’s experience in antibody discovery services, safety, and analytics with Wheeler’s Portable CMC platform.

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. has announced a strategic agreement with Wheeler Bio, Inc., an antibody contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on preclinical and early clinical supply of recombinant proteins, providing clients access to Wheeler’s Portable CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) platform.
 
This new alliance intends to provide early-stage biotechnology companies a unique solution to rapidly transition from pre-clinical activities to first-in-human clinical trials.
 
Combining Charles River’s experience in antibody discovery services, safety, and analytics with Wheeler’s Portable CMC platform aims to accelerate therapeutic discovery to IND submission timelines. This umbrella offering connects the preclinical, clinical manufacturing, and release testing journeys, reducing the complexity of managing multiple vendor relationships.
 
According to Charles River, integrating CMC development early in discovery enables therapeutic developers to collaborate with experts across the organizations to utilize phase-appropriate manufacturing and analytics. The services and expertise come together to provide a single concept-to-commercial offering.
 
Wheeler’s Portable CMC is a validation-ready production process which reduces technical and regulatory risk. The organization operates the Portable CMC platform in Wheeler’s process development labs in Oklahoma City, OK, which also houses a CGMP facility-of-the-future with on-site Charles River RightSource quality control testing labs. There is an additional satellite lab in Waltham, MA featuring protein sciences and bench scale process capabilities.
 
“We are thrilled to provide Charles River clients with access to Wheeler’s innovative Portable CMC platform, which will optimize their workflows and ultimately bring new treatments to patients faster,” said Julie Frearson, Corporate Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer, Charles River.
 
“Wheeler is excited to expand our relationship with Charles River and to link with their discovery organization,” stated Jesse McCool, CEO and Co-Founder, Wheeler Bio. “By integrating discovery CRO and CDMO workflows, we can speed our clients’ path to first-in-human trials, thereby achieving clinical decisions faster. Our combined sales teams look forward to co-promoting these services for the benefit of our biotech partners and their pipelines towards clinical impact.”

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