Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 189 - Cameron Pitt - Co-founder & COO Quanta Therapeutics

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Episode 189 - Cameron Pitt - Co-founder & COO Quanta Therapeutics · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:06
  So welcome back to another episode of the Bio Hub and
• 0:09
  Avetics podcast. Today I'm joined by Cameron Pip,
• 0:12
  Co founder and CEO of Quanter Therapeutics.
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  Cameron's journey spans academia, venture capital, and
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  now company building, from research at Stanford and UCSF to
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  investing roles at Verson and Softenova, where he helped form
• 0:27
  Quanta before stepping in to help build the company.
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  From day one, Quanta is focused on tackling one of the biggest
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  challenges in oncology, targeting Ras driven cancers
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  through a novel approach to restoring control of Ras
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  signalling. In this conversation, we talk
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  about Cameron's path to startups, the science behind
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  Quanta, the realities of building a biotech company, and
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  what's next. So let's get into it.
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  How are you, Cameron? Doing great, thanks for having
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  me on. It's a pleasure, honestly.
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  I really want to start with with you and your background.
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  So like I said, your journey started in research before
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  moving into venture capital and then now into company building.
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  At at what point did you realize you wanted to move into
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  start-ups? Yeah.
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  I always kind of had an inkling that that would be where I'd end
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  up, but didn't really know until I got the opportunity to see a
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  lot of different start-ups and how they play out through both
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  role I had in venture. Yeah.
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  When I was a scientist, I would look into, you know, what is how
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  do I actually translate this into a potential product?
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  And there's a lot of ways that that can go typically in big
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  pharma. But, you know, you have a lot
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  less control over how you can get there.
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  It is always moving from day-to-day.
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  With a small biotech, you are really fully focused on this
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  mission. You kind of have to execute on
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  it. And of course there's ups and
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  downs and often reroutes, but you know, it's that's all part
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  of the process to getting something that is truly
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  differentiated, you know, potentially best in class, you
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  know, going to add value for patience.
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  And so that's where I knew I ultimately wanted to end up, but
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  you know, kind of circuitous route and that I was an investor
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  before coming into the operator role.
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  With each career move then, did you kind of have in the back of
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  your mind, well, this is where I want to end up?
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  Does this make sense or? Or was it more an instinctive
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  thing at the time? Or what was it like?
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  Yeah, I was just learning, kind of picking up new skills along
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  the way. You know, when I was a
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  researcher, it was really how you dig deep into a particular
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  problem and investigate it from a new way and and get to
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  conclusions that no one had ever achieved before.
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  And then as an investor, it was really focused on how do I
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  understand not just the science, but also the business
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  opportunity and how you can get this to that next stage of, you
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  know, value inflection and all the, you know, financial stuff
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  behind that, which you don't really think about as a
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  scientist. But actually it's pretty easy to
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  pick up. And then as the operator at
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  version particularly, you know, we got to wear a lot of hats
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  building companies, starting them out of incubator set up.
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  And you know, that requires a lot of things that you don't
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  really think about getting, you know, lab space, getting
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  equipment, getting, you know, insurance, things that you know,
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  are all just kind of day-to-day things that you you don't really
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  understand are essential for the ultimate goal of building the
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  company. But yeah, ultimately I think
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  what was most exciting was getting to the point of being
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  able to translate that science and actually see something go
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  from a, you know, preclinical idea to to a clinical asset and
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  ultimately, you know, showing value in in the clinic and
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  working in patients. And so getting that now to
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  potential path toward a real product, you know, a commercial
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  product is I think my next, you know, goal.
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  That'd be a lot of fun. Yeah, for sure.
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  And you, well this leads on really nicely.
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  So you've been seeing the industry from both the investor
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  side and then now in house. How different are those
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  perspectives when it comes to building a company?
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  They're, they're pretty different.
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  You know investors typically are active through a board
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  representation, right? Either a seat or observer and
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  there you're seeing, you know, what management, you know,
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  decides are the most important things to see on the potential,
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  you know, risks and mitigations that are being taken.
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  But that isn't really the day-to-day of, you know, how do
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  you actually create? And so being, you know, in house
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  at a company and being part of that creation requires a lot of
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  things that you don't have to think about as investor, but are
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  really important to, you know, executing on, you know, a high
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  probability of success. So yeah, I think that's it's
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  really just the visibility that you have, which really differs.
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  And then, you know, the amount of hats you have to wear as an
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  operator, particularly if it's a small biotech where we have, you
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  know, 30 some employees. Yeah.
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  What would what advice would you give to someone who is making
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  that pivot? Build a network.
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  I think no one really knows what what problems they're going to
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  have to address until they've, you know, been through it.
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  And so if you find people who've been through all these stages
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  before and company formation and yeah, bring something into the
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  clinic and ultimately to commercial, you really need to
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  have a, a broad network of folks he can tap into.
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  And not just, you know, potential employees, but you
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  know, consultants, advisors, yeah.
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  So that that's something that you don't, it's not easy to
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  build as an investor. Typically you're really just
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  working with your investor network and and a few of the
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  operators that have you know been successful in prior
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  companies, but you really have to operate to see all these
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  these issues, you know first hand.
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  Yeah. And we, we touched on it a
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  little bit earlier, but you, you're involved in the formation
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  of quanta while it's often over and then obviously made the move
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  fully over to step in as as COO. What what made you make the
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  jump? I know you always have the
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  singling that you would, but I suppose why quanta?
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  Why was that timing right and all of those pieces?
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  Yeah. So this forming Quano was really
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  close to home. Of course, this is something
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  that I've been working on for a long time as a researcher.
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  So K Raz, huge problem in oncology had been unaddressable
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  beyond the G12C units were which were really just unlocked during
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  the time I was in grad school. And I was really, you know, able
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  to see that first hand, to be able to extend that into the
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  more common meetings, to go after these directly, to be able
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  to combine them optimally to get to really the best outcomes
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  possible for patients. That was something that I wanted
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  to, you know, play a real part in.
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  And also it was just kind of the right time in terms of we had
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  invested in Quanah. We had reached the point where
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  we had really validated the technology and gotten some
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  pharma interest in it. But taking it to that next step
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  of, you know, really investing in our own clinical, you know,
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  pipeline was something that was going to take a lot of, you
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  know, leadership and it was really a great opportunity for
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  me to be able to do that. Yeah.
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  And now for those who don't know Quanta, can you just walk us
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  through the company and the science behind what you guys are
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  doing? Yeah.
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  So Quanta was formed on a technology that allows us to see
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  allosteric activity. So this really taps into the
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  binding of a molecule which can confer a function.
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  So it actually binds in a way that produces a change in the
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  confirmation of the protein and thus breaks its normal activity.
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  So it doesn't allow it to interact with the proteins that
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  normally would or it kind of skews those interactions.
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  And so we, we knew that this was really the only way to get at
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  the problem, which is Ras because it's not a typical
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  enzyme target where there's active site that you can kind of
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  lock. This is the target where it only
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  acts by forming protein, protein interactions.
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  And you can disrupt those most effectively by not allowing it
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  to reach the confirmation where it wants to be to form these
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  interactions. And you can do that by a small
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  molecule binding event. And we had a screening platform
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  that allows us to see real time protein motion.
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  And when we're, you know, producing that effect on on K
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  rows directly, which allowed us to see really differentiated
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  chemistry to get to small molecules that could actually
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  produce this function and hit mutants that were, you know,
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  unaddressable historically. And at the same time, there's a
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  lot of advancement in the field because all these publications
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  were just released on, you know, the ability to go after V12C and
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  potentially even beyond that. So we were able to use a lot of
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  our learnings based on our platform and connect those to
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  the structural biology that was out there and do a lot of really
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  unique chemistry to achieve differentiated candidates which
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  were really tough for the field to get to.
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  And so far the issue has been really getting to proper drug
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  like properties from these. It's really complex chemistry
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  which goes beyond the rule of five, which is the typical, you
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  know, drug like compounds which you can you can expect would
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  have a proper behavior at the clinic for oral exposure.
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  We had to really go back to drawing board on some of that
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  and achieve really new chemistry to to be able to unlock those
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  properties. Yeah.
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  And. You talked about the challenges
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  there of of targeting Ross. What makes your approach
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  particularly exciting in in the field?
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  Yeah. So right now what's receiving a
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  lot of attention in the field is the Tri complex inhibitor
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  approach, which is a really clever approach to use.
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  What we learned from natural products is that they can
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  actually produce significant impacts on protein, protein
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  interaction and they can do that by Co opting intracellular
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  proteins to do something that they normally would not.
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  So that is what's, you know, going forward right now in the
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  clinic, we expect the first approval for Draxon rasib, which
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  is a Tri complex inhibitor goes after all Ras.
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  And you know, this could lead to a breakthrough in pancreatic
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  cancer that you know, was an attempt to go beyond the G12C
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  inhibitors which were really limited in scope.
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  But it wasn't ideal because it's not a direct approach.
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  This is an approach which allows you to use, you know, a third
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  party protein to do the job. And the risk is when you do
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  that, that protein is no longer, you know, essential for the
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  cancer cell. If you lose that and you lose
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  the activity of your therapeutic modality.
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  So what's really important about our approach is that we could go
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  directly after the target. We could go directly after all
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  the forms of K Ras which we know are activated and we can spare
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  the forms that are important for normal cells.
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  So H Ras and N Ras are really important for normal cell
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  signaling. If you spare those, you could
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  have improved therapeutic index and allow for broader
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  combinability. So that's what we're proving out
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  in the clinic with with our approach is really that it's
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  going to be more durable and more combinable.
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  Yeah, let's just talk about your journey so far as well, from
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  inception to where you're going and what's coming.
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  Yeah. So where we started with the
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  company is really tapping in this platform to go after the
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  most common needing T12D and now we're expanding that into a true
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  pan K Ras mechanism molecules that can go after all of the
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  commonly mutated forms which are activated across most human
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  cancers or at least you know, activated very commonly across
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  most solid tumors. And so for that you really do
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  need unique chemistry and we've been able to achieve that.
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  I mentioned really good drug like properties which allows us
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  to have oral bioavailability and to cover all of these means.
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  So that's the next step is really taking that into the
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  clinic and proving out that this is going to be active beyond
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  just G12D. What?
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  What? So what's to come now?
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  What are the the big milestones for you guys?
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  Yeah. So we've we were the first to
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  enter the combination with cetuximab, which is the EGFR
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  inhibitor and colorectal cancer that really does unlock that
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  huge area for KRS development. It's the second most common area
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  where KRS is mutated. But it's been very tough for
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  small molecule drugs to be able to unlock that and we know that
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  it's going to require combination.
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  So we were the first to show a group of concept for that combo
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  late last year at the triple meeting and we plan to extend
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  that this year through you know expansion cohorts which are
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  underway. And also we've entered the first
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  line setting as well. So to combine with chemotherapy
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  on top of the sodeximab, which could enable, you know, earlier
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  use and broader use and likely better durability, which is
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  going to be really important and a tough indication, which is
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  heterogeneous like colorectal cancer.
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  Nice. Beyond that, I I said we're
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  going after Pan K Ras. So really the ability to hit
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  multiple forms beyond G12D. Nice.
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  And you know, building a biotech company is, is never
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  straightforward. Like you guys are obviously
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  doing incredibly well. But I suppose what was some of
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  the biggest challenges been for Qantas so far that you would you
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  would pass on advice to other first time founders of startups
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  and and and then also how have you navigated them?
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  So I'd say a challenge that we didn't predict going in with
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  Qantas was, you know, how much the, you know, economic
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  uncertainty would impact our ability to fundraise.
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  So there's, you know, when we started quant, it was pre COVID,
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  there was a lot of excitement around platform companies.
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  A lot of these showed, you know, once you take those public, you
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  know, these are very risky approaches and and you know, a
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  lot of those didn't pan out to real products.
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  So it's become more challenging to fundraise with platforms.
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  I think we really adapted at the right time and focused on what
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  is the key problem, which is getting to care house products
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  which are truly differentiated. And now that we've been able to
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  display that, we're in this new environment where there's a push
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  for pharma to see more clinical data before a potential
• 14:54
  transaction. And, you know, our investor base
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  is really focused on how do you show that differentiation as
• 15:01
  early as possible. So we're really looking at all
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  avenues to be able to do that. Is it through studies X US and
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  parallel with with US studies, which could allow you to
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  generate data quicker and, and potentially more diverse data
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  sets. So we're going to learn a lot, I
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  think in the next couple of years as we, you know, apply our
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  resources in the most, you know, efficient manner to get to the
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  the data sets that we know pharma's looking for.
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  Yeah. And I suppose it's been an
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  unfortunate case where you're not the only biotech that felt
• 15:32
  those, those issues. How, how do you go about that,
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  you know, when the fundraising is hard to come by?
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  Is it, is it a mixture of yes, just relentlessness trying to
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  bring that fundraising in, but also a bit more imaginative
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  about it. It's also being more cash frugal
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  as a company and and that kind of stuff.
• 15:55
  That's right. Yeah, it's all of the above.
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  I think we've we've learned that you really have to be more
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  efficient. You have to think about what are
• 16:01
  the ways that you can generate more unique data early.
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  And we really have to sell that idea in a way that is credible,
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  a way that you know is really scientifically validated.
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  And you know, investors will come once you have the data
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  which shows that you're differentiated, you have
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  potential to be best in class investors will circle since
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  that's what we're seeing. Yeah.
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  On the fundraising side, have you, have you seen a a change in
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  the market recently like how, how are you, you seeing the
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  industry? Yeah, it's definitely picking
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  up. I think it's on a lot of the
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  momentum that we've seen in the M&M&A side recently, a lot of
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  major acquisitions, bigger deals than we'd seen historically and
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  just coming in a lot more rapid clip and also the IPO window is
• 16:49
  open. It's really just a very
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  selective, you know, set of companies that can go public
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  and, and those are really showing larger raises because
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  everyone is piling in. And then there's a real
• 17:02
  validation of new modalities that's occurring.
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  So of course we're a small molecule company, but a lot of
• 17:07
  companies now in the ADC space are showing, you know, potential
• 17:14
  to, you know, go after much bigger markets.
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  And so I think that does kind of spill over.
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  And as folks look at a market like the key res market where it
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  is, you know, huge, but you know, small molecule could
• 17:25
  potentially address it. We're we're seeing a lot more
• 17:29
  interest and potentially, you know, raise bigger raises
• 17:31
  sooner. Yeah, it's interesting, right.
• 17:34
  These trends that go around, you know we ADC is back up on the
• 17:38
  rise and things like that like it does kind of going around
• 17:42
  when your area is trending like do do you change your strategy
• 17:49
  or talk well actually now is a great time to go in and talk to
• 17:52
  these people or or do you not really think like that?
• 17:56
  Yeah, I think it's super important to stay focused.
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  You know, these you do want to tap into, you know, ability to
• 18:04
  fundraise whenever, whenever you can.
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  And so I think, yeah, if you are in a already in a hotter space,
• 18:10
  you should really take advantage of that at the time.
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  But to, you know, really adapt the company to go into a space
• 18:16
  because it's receiving investor interest I think is short
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  sighted because really that that's always going to be a
• 18:23
  changing, you know, there's always a shift in the pendulum.
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  And we think that it's really about the science.
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  You know, if there isn't scientific merit to combine, you
• 18:33
  know, 1 modality with, you know, a space that is, you know, hot
• 18:37
  at the time, then there's no point in going after it.
• 18:40
  We are seeing that competitors in the KRO space are looking at
• 18:45
  the ADC space and, you know, showing ability to use that to
• 18:50
  potentially improve therapeutic index.
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  But really the problem isn't, you know, the science of the
• 18:56
  target. The problem is the way that
• 18:58
  you're addressing it with the molecule selectivity profile.
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  So we think that you can do that best when you're really going
• 19:03
  directly after the target with a small molecule.
• 19:06
  Yeah, I love what you guys are doing.
• 19:08
  I feel like you're, you know, you've been calculated in your
• 19:10
  growth and you're in a really good place, which is awesome to
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  see. And look, this brings us to my
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  final question, which is a question I ask every guest.
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  If you could have dinner with any scientist or innovator, past
• 19:24
  or present, who would it be and why?
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  I think I might have to say my advisor, Frank McCormick, he has
• 19:34
  been an incredible mentor. And every time I meet with them,
• 19:37
  there's something new to talk about.
• 19:38
  There's always something new that I learned.
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  And it's always a situation where it's pulling out something
• 19:45
  from me that I didn't know I had.
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  And I think, you know, that sort of relationship is is very rare
• 19:50
  and you know, want to take advantage of it whenever I can.
• 19:54
  And that brings it back to you. You know, the, the first part of
• 19:57
  your the first question I asked you, which was build a network.
• 20:01
  You know, these advice to the younger generation, like so
• 20:04
  important to have those those mentors and how much value they
• 20:07
  can give you. That's right.
• 20:09
  Yeah. It's really important to have
• 20:10
  true sponsors, not just folks who are, you know, there when
• 20:14
  you call, but folks who are talking about you even when
• 20:16
  you're not there and, you know, able to connect you into
• 20:20
  networks when you're not even, you know, initiating that
• 20:22
  discussion. Yeah, I think that's a great
• 20:24
  place to leave the podcast as well.
• 20:27
  Thank you so much for coming on, Cameron.
• 20:30
  Pleasure to hear your story. And everyone please like and
• 20:33
  subscribe to the Biohub. Thanks again, Cameron.
• 20:36
  Thanks so much for having me, appreciate it.