Seattle biotech startup led by Fred Hutch, Adaptive vets raises $16M for rapid drug development tech

Lumen Chief Science Officer Jim Roberts (left) and CEO Brian Finrow. (Lumen Photo)

Lumen Bioscience today announced a $16 million Series B round to help support its novel approach to rapid and low-cost drug development.

The company has come up with a way to produce orally-delivered antibodies and other biologics by using a bioengineered bright green algae called Spirulina. It has three clinical programs to treat gastrointestinal diseases including C. difficile, norovirus, and traveler’s diarrhea.

Lumen CEO Brian Finrow said the company’s technology lowers the cost of biologic drugs by a factor of 1,000 or more.

“With traditional technologies there’s nowhere near enough manufacturing capacity in the world to treat and prevent these diseases in this way, but Lumen’s technology makes it feasible,” he said.

Lumen is led by Finrow, a former senior vice president at Adaptive Biotechnologies, and Chief Science Officer Jim Roberts, the former head of basic sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute. They co-founded the startup in 2017.

The 50-person company has several collaborations with organizations such as the Gates Foundation, NIH, NIAID, Fred Hutch, and others. It is currently working with the Gates Foundation to develop infectious disease drugs alongside fellow Seattle startup A-Alpha Bio.

WestRiver Management and Bioeconomy Capital led the round. Avista Development, Columbia Pacific, and local angels also participated, along with the co-founders. Total funding to date is $68 million.

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Industry slowdown hits Adaptive Biotech’s bottom line as COVID immune initiatives show progress

Chad Robins, left, is co-founder and CEO of Adaptive Biotechnologies, which he co-founded with his brother, Harlan Robins, right, a theoretical physicist turned computational biologist who is the company’s chief scientific officer. (Adaptive Biotechnologies Photo)

Adaptive Biotechnologies’ revenue fell 5% to $21 million in the second quarter, and its net loss more than doubled to $33.5 million, due in part to reduced usage of its immune sequencing technologies by research labs that have closed temporarily or cut back their operations due to COVID-19.

But even as it feels the impact of the pandemic, the Seattle-based company is using its immune sequencing platform to battle COVID-19 on a variety of fronts. Last week, the company announced a new monitoring tool that measures how T-cells, key components of the immune system, respond over time to COVID-19 vaccines.

“COVID-19 brought the role of the immune system to the forefront of society and has created the opportunity for Adaptive to be positioned as the go-to company to rapidly and reproducibly assess the T-cell response to any pathogen, including future pandemics,” said Adaptive CEO Chad Robins on a conference call with investors. “The breadth of advances we have made recently in each of our business areas is remarkable, particularly given the impact of COVID on all of us.”

The company, which went public a year ago on the Nasdaq, makes technology to sequence the human system immune system, with the promise of diagnosing multiple diseases from a single blood test.

Microsoft and Adaptive have been working in recent months to develop a new diagnostic test for COVID-19 as part of a broader partnership. Adaptive is also partnering with Amgen to develop a new drug to treat and prevent COVID-19, using Adaptive’s immune sequencing technology.

Despite the lower revenue and wider loss in the second quarter, Adaptive beat expectations for the quarter ended June 30 with a loss of 26 cents per share. Analysts expected revenue of $18.8 million and a loss of 28 cents per share.

Adaptive ended the quarter with $628 million in cash and short-term investments, which did not include an additional $272 million raised by the company in July in a follow-on stock offering, according to a regulatory filing.

The company reported a 33% decline in sequencing revenue, which fell to less than $8 million from more than $11.8 million in the same quarter a year ago.  Adaptive said research sequencing volume declined 54% in the quarter, “primarily attributable to trial enrollment delays and project deferrals from our biopharmaceutical and academic customers.”

Revenue from clinical sequencing increased by $900,000, as volume from clinical customers rose 31%, the company said.

Development revenue for the quarter increased $13 million, or 27%, due in part to a $4.2 million increase in revenue from Adaptive’s deal with Genentech to develop personalized cancer therapies.

Shares stayed stable in after-hours trading. Adaptive’s stock has more than doubled since March.

Adaptive, a spinout of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was founded in 2009 by Chad Robins and his brother, Harlan Robins, the company’s chief scientific officer. The company employs more than 500 people and is building a new headquarters and R&D facility in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

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Adaptive Biotech pushes ahead with new Seattle HQ, showing strength of life sciences industry

Chad Robins, CEO of Adaptive Biotechnologies, speaks at the site of the company’s future corporate headquarters in Seattle, standing in front of the final piece of structural steel before it’s put into place. (Stephen Brashear/AP Images for Adaptive Biotechnologies)

Topping-off ceremonies, in which workers place the last piece of structural steel for new building, have become run-of-the-mill over the past decade in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. But the recent event held by Adaptive Biotechnologies carried extra symbolic significance, due to the events swirling around it.

The pandemic has emptied large swaths of the surrounding neighborhood, including Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. (Construction workers and officials wore masks during the ceremony.) Meanwhile, new questions are emerging about the long-term role of Seattle and other traditional tech hubs in the innovation economy.

But biotech in Seattle “is just thriving right now,” said Chad Robins, the Adaptive Biotechnologies CEO, as he made his way to the ceremony at the new building, being developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities at 1165 Eastlake Avenue E.

Part of the reason, he said, is the intersection of biotech and technology in the city.

Adaptive, which spun out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, works closely with Microsoft as part of its long-term quest to diagnose multiple diseases from a single blood test. Microsoft and Adaptive have been working in recent months to develop a new diagnostic test for COVID-19 as an extension of their partnership.

The future home of Adaptive Biotechnologies at 1165 Eastlake Avenue E. in Seattle. (Alexandria Real Estate Equities Rendering.)

“The convergence of biotechnology and technology in this city is a phenomenal aspect of what’s available to us,” Robins said.

In a recent report on life sciences hubs, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield cited Adaptive’s partnership with Microsoft as an example of “a growing alliance between life sciences and tech companies” that “has set Seattle apart as an emerging hub.”

Adaptive is also partnering with Amgen to develop a new drug to treat and prevent COVID-19, using Adaptive’s system for sequencing the human immune system.

In recent years, demand has been high for a limited amount of lab and suitable office space for biotech companies in the city. Vacancy rates for lab space in Seattle fell below 3% earlier this year, according to the Cushman & Wakefield report, vs. more than 7.1% in 12 key markets covered in the report.

Adaptive announced its 100,000-square-foot lease of the facility in the fall of 2019, and plans to move in after the building is completed in about a year. The new facility gave Adaptive an opportunity to rethink its lab space to accommodate the needs of its current scientific workflows and processes, Robins said.

Adaptive Biotechnologies Chief Scientific Officer Harlan Robins signs the final beam during a “topping off” ceremony at the company’s future headquarters on Thursday, 23, 2020 in Seattle. (Stephen Brashear/AP Images for Adaptive Biotechnologies)

The building will also serve as Adaptive’s new headquarters, tripling its footprint in the city. It’s about a six-minute walk from Adaptive’s current space at 1551 Eastlake Ave. in Seattle, where the company plans to retain its presence.

Robins said the new building “is just the next, natural phase of growth for us and our immune-driven medicine platform.”

Adaptive has grown by more than 200 people over the past year, with more than 500 employees overall. Its employees who are able to do their jobs from home are working remotely, and the company says it has been maintaining strict safety protocols for researchers and others who need to work in its labs.

The company is not the only key member of the life sciences sector expanding in the city. Despite recent cutbacks, Fred Hutch is proceeding with plans to move into about 275 scientists and staff into 106,000-square feet in the renovated Seattle Steam Plant, the former home of biotech company Zymogenetics. The new space will expand Fred Hutch’s wet lab capacity by 15%. Move-in is set for late September and October, according to Fred Hutch officials.

Founded in 2009, Adaptive went public on the Nasdaq stock market in June 2019. It recently raised $240 million in a follow-on stock offering.

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