Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 110 - JPM Special - Maureen Hillenmeyer - CEO & Founder Hexagon Bio

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Episode 110 - JPM Special - Maureen Hillenmeyer - CEO & Founder Hexagon Bio · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:04
  So welcome to a live special at JPM of the Bio Hub podcast.
• 0:09
  I'm with Maureen Hillenmeyer, the CEO and founder of Hexagon
• 0:13
  Bio. So far, they've raised 190
• 0:15
  million. They've grown from scratch to 45
• 0:18
  people and they're close to proof of concept.
• 0:22
  Welcome, Maureen. How are you?
• 0:23
  Good, thank you for having me Max this.
• 0:24
  Is great. It's a pleasure.
• 0:26
  Yeah. I think let's just start off
• 0:28
  with who? A hexagon.
• 0:30
  What are you guys doing? What's your journey been so far?
• 0:33
  Yeah, sounds great. So Hexagon is based in Menlo
• 0:36
  Park, CA. We're 45 people.
• 0:38
  As you mentioned, we're focused on antibody drug conjugates from
• 0:41
  oncology, initially breast cancer and then expanding into
• 0:43
  other types of cancers. So the company was founded, spun
• 0:47
  out of Stanford, initially focused on natural products.
• 0:52
  So things like penicillin, the famous antibiotic came from a
• 0:55
  fungus. Taxol came from a plant.
• 0:59
  Many drugs for infectious disease and cancer were found
• 1:02
  from these natural sources. People think because they
• 1:05
  evolved over millions of years to be very potent and specific
• 1:08
  drugs initially to kill off things in their environment like
• 1:12
  bacteria or fast growing cells. Some of those became useful for
• 1:16
  humans. For example, in penicillin we
• 1:18
  get overrun with infections or in cancer certain types of cells
• 1:21
  are growing too fast. Taxol is one that slows down
• 1:24
  that growth. So Hexagon, we developed
• 1:27
  technology to speed discovery of the next generation of natural
• 1:31
  products, particularly as applied to oncology.
• 1:35
  Yeah, amazing. And you guys have come pretty
• 1:38
  long way, right? Like we're talking from Sanford
• 1:41
  spin out to raising 190 million through BC to growing to 100 to
• 1:46
  45 people just talks through the journey so far and like what
• 1:50
  it's been like. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:51
  So that was interesting. So my background is a scientist
• 1:54
  by training, initially thought about academia.
• 1:56
  I wanted to cure cancers through research, was at Stanford,
• 2:01
  working at Stanford, and really got excited about industry
• 2:05
  companies, everyone rowing the same direction to cure diseases,
• 2:10
  and then within industry got especially excited about small
• 2:13
  companies and the speed at which these can move and really come
• 2:18
  up with innovative medicines. So being in the Bay Area, I had
• 2:22
  a lot of exposure to founders, companies, venture capitalists,
• 2:28
  just knew a lot of people who went into that business.
• 2:30
  People always ask me, how did you even think of starting a
• 2:32
  company or becoming ACEO? And it was honestly just.
• 2:35
  A bad question, right? Yeah.
• 2:36
  Yeah. And it was just very normal in
• 2:38
  this area. A lot of people do that.
• 2:41
  So got to learn what kinds of things venture capital will fund
• 2:45
  within biotech, what kinds of data are needed at various
• 2:48
  stages of of VC funding. So we're working at, we were
• 2:53
  working at Stanford, got some pulmonary data that excited
• 2:55
  venture capitalists and spun out the company and scaled from
• 2:59
  there over a seed A&B rounds funding.
• 3:03
  I mean, amazing, yeah. And you've got some milestones
• 3:07
  coming up as well. Yeah.
• 3:09
  So we have some excellent data on our preclinical compound.
• 3:12
  We're looking ahead to clinical trials and clinical proof of
• 3:15
  concept within the next couple of years.
• 3:17
  It's exciting, yeah. Very exciting.
• 3:19
  It's a great time. Bridge APM, obviously.
• 3:24
  Let's talk about how it's been for you.
• 3:25
  Also why it's such an important event.
• 3:28
  Yeah, yeah. And the reason why it's
• 3:29
  important, I'm going to say a little more about the science,
• 3:32
  kind of a science science nerd. So our lead program and really
• 3:37
  several programs related to it are within antibody drug
• 3:40
  conjugates. So this is where the field of
• 3:44
  oncology is moving. Initially it was chemotherapies,
• 3:46
  small molecules like Taxol that would slow down the growth of
• 3:50
  cancer cells. More recently, oncology has
• 3:53
  moved into what are called antibody drug conjugates, where
• 3:56
  people put those toxins like Taxol, they attach them to
• 4:00
  antibodies and people are trying to make these into, they say
• 4:04
  targeted missiles or guided missiles, that the antibody will
• 4:07
  guide it to the cancer cell where there's some overexpressed
• 4:10
  antigen and then the toxic payload will kill the cell.
• 4:14
  There's only really two major classes of payloads out there on
• 4:18
  the ADC's. They're both natural products
• 4:20
  are called topo and tubulin inhibitors.
• 4:24
  People think those have been so successful.
• 4:27
  These natural products have been successful again because they
• 4:29
  evolved over millions of years to be good at killing cells,
• 4:32
  especially cancer cells. The field doesn't have really
• 4:36
  any other payloads out there approved right now besides
• 4:40
  those. So Hexagon has a totally
• 4:43
  different class other than those two approved ones that can
• 4:48
  address cancer cells that are not responding to those two
• 4:51
  approved payloads. So either when tumors become
• 4:54
  resistant to those two payloads, which always happens inevitably,
• 4:59
  or certain tumor types that just intrinsically don't respond
• 5:01
  well. So a Hexagon, we have a really
• 5:05
  exciting ADC payload derived from a natural product that's
• 5:08
  really good at killing cells. So we've put that initially on a
• 5:12
  couple of different antibodies, secret preclinical activity.
• 5:15
  So then coming back to JPM, long answer to your question, we're
• 5:19
  now interested in putting that payload on many other different
• 5:23
  antibodies for many different types of cancer.
• 5:25
  So internally at Hexagon, we're focused on breast cancer
• 5:28
  initially. There's many other antibodies
• 5:30
  and antigens directed at other types of tumors.
• 5:34
  The other companies have those antibodies and have expertise
• 5:37
  and we're partnering that payload on these different
• 5:41
  antibodies. A lot of discussions this week
• 5:43
  with companies, yeah. And successful, right?
• 5:45
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:48
  And sometimes it's hard to tell, you know, in the moment what
• 5:52
  sounds good. Yeah.
• 5:53
  What have you thought of the general feel of of JPM this
• 5:56
  year? Yeah, super optimistic.
• 5:58
  I mean, the weather was just amazing.
• 6:01
  Everybody's I think so, yeah. But everyone's just feeling
• 6:07
  really good. I feel like the kind of tide has
• 6:09
  turned in the last year. A lot of optimism, a lot of
• 6:13
  people talking deals on street corners and in the coffee shops.
• 6:17
  So it was really a good week, yeah.
• 6:19
  It's good. And you know what, like we just
• 6:22
  talked about how far it's kind of have gone and what they've
• 6:25
  been doing. Like what advice would you give
• 6:27
  to to other people who are looking to pound biotech,
• 6:30
  especially coming straight out of academia as well?
• 6:33
  Yeah, yeah, that's a good question.
• 6:36
  I think getting to know the, if you're talking investors,
• 6:40
  getting to know the individuals, both the firm's what kind of
• 6:44
  stage they are, early stage like preclinical or clinical or or
• 6:49
  what. And then even within a firm kind
• 6:51
  of getting to know the individuals and what they're
• 6:53
  interested in, are they more scientist or financial
• 6:57
  background? Everyone's an individual.
• 7:00
  People talk about investors like a group, but they're all very
• 7:04
  different and individualized. Yeah, yeah.
• 7:07
  Is it? Well, I'm so glad you've been
• 7:10
  successful and it's so, so much more to come, right.
• 7:13
  And it's been a pleasure to have you on.
• 7:16
  Yeah, thank. You thank you so much Maury and
• 7:18
  everyone please like and subscribe to the bio hub and and
• 7:21
  thank you again. Thank you.
• 7:22
  Max.