Heat Biologics to reap benefit of new biotech
Jan 17, 2017, 10:21am EST
Jennifer Henderson
Staff Writer
Triangle Business Journal
Heat Biologics recently announced the appointment of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PPHM) alum Dr. Jeff Hutchins as its new chief scientific officer and senior vice president of preclinical development, but the company also stands to benefit from where its former CSO has headed.
Former CSO Dr. Taylor Schreiber will, not only chair Heat’s scientific advisory board, he’ll also serve as CSO of new biotechnology company Shattuck Labs Inc., according to an announcement from Heat. Shattuck is “developing technology exclusively licensed from Heat,” the Durham-based company said.
“Taylor will be joining Shattuck Labs, a biotechnology company focused on agonist redirected checkpoint therapeutics for cancer immunotherapy, as their CSO,” said Heat chief executive officer Jeff Wolf in prepared remarks. “Shattuck Labs is independently funded by outside investors and Heat has the potential to benefit from the success of Shattuck through milestone and royalty payments as they advance their product candidates.”
A spokeswoman for Heat (Nasdaq: HTBX) said that financial terms of the agreement between Heat and Shattuck are not public, and that the company declined to provide further comment on any other specifics of the agreement.
However, Heat’s third quarter results filing last year with the SEC states the following: “We recognized $220,233 in research funding revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 pursuant to our exclusive license agreement with Shattuck Labs, Inc. (“Shattuck”) to allow Shattuck to take over the research and development of certain preclinical assets. There was no revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2015.” The filing states the same revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, and that there were no revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2015.
Kumar Raja, vice President of biotechnology research at Noble Life Science Partners, says that Heat has not released any further information regarding its agreement with Shattuck other than what was noted in its announcement regarding its CSO transition.
He says that Heat stands to receive milestone payments as a result of the agreement, which in the biotech arena, typically occur in conjunction with Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials, approval, and at certain sales markers, like $100 million.
Earlier in the year, Austin, Texas-based Shattuck raised upward of $3 million from 25 investors.
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