The boutique contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Wheeler Bio has closed a $31 million Series A financing round, which it plans to use to complete a CGMP cell banking and drug substance manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City.

The company specializes in process development and small batch CGMP production of therapeutic antibodies. Wheeler says the financing will allow it to sharpen its focus on its portable chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) offering.

Wheeler Bio’s hub-and-spoke concept centered in Oklahoma City focuses on addressing the technical, financial and regulatory risks emerging pharma companies encounter. The company notes that its commitment to transparency, partnership culture and fixed pricing further supports its mission to streamline drug development.

Wheeler Bio’s portable CMC offering

Wheeler Bio’s primary service offering is Portable CMC, an open-source “CMC middleware.” The company says the offering can help customers achieve speed, efficiency, predictability and freedom to operate by integrating discovery CROs and CDMOs and bridging the translational gap. By providing an efficient bundling of three CMC development services — Lead Selection, Clone Selection, and CDMO Selection — Portable CMC aims to enhance business integrations that could speed up the translational steps for clients.

Wheeler says it will using the new capital to finish constructing of its Wheeler Bio’s CGMP cell banking and drug substance manufacturing site in The Ziggurat, a downtown Oklahoma City office tower. This location will have a 500 L scale capacity.

Integrated tools and technologies

Wheeler Bio uses a range of tools, technologies, and digital technologies such as leap-in transposase, Solentim, Ambr microbioreactors, DynaDrive single-sse bioreactors, the Synthace experiment platform and DataHowLab. The company says these tools can help its pharma clients reduce risk during drug development by enhancing product and process knowledge, enabling more efficient and accurate data collection, analysis and decision-making throughout the development process.

Wheeler Bio also has a facility in Boston.