The agentic biotech
Choose your patients, define your risk, design the drug.
The question that comes first
Great ideas balance opportunity with creativity.
Hecate Bio starts with the patients, the clinical evidence and the unmet need. We combine experience in biologics development with AI agents to evaluate opportunities before committing to a target or molecular format.
Our goal: choose a differentiated therapeutic opportunity, understand the risks, and define the experiments from discovery to IND.
Our approach
Mechanism of action, clinical data and the patient selection all feed into the Therapeutic Profile.
Bispecifics, ADCs and T-cell engagers are all validated in the clinic. Each mechanism is a different opportunity. If it’s made of protein or it’s a conjugate, it’s in scope. De novo design too, if it makes sense.
Computational protein engineering and sophisticated PK modeling determine values for binding, half-life, exposure and elimination. Candidates are constructed to meet the therapeutic profile.
Every torch has a price. Agents design the experiments needed to make go/no-go decisions, and each one has a cost. A format that works out of the box costs less. That price feeds back into which drug we build.
The Scientific Mind Engine
The Scientific Mind Engine is Hecate’s internal system for evaluating therapeutic opportunities. AI agents organize evidence and challenge assumptions; human scientific judgment sets direction.
Facts are linked to their sources. Judgment is identified as judgment. Unknowns stay visible.
Clinical results help us locate promising biology nearby—and distinguish it from crowded or untested ground.
We are building toward molecular specifications and experimental plans that connect each experiment to a decision.
Today, the engine supports target evaluation and target product profiles. Molecular specification and experimental planning are the next layers in development.
Founder
“I spent six years at Merck telling AI companies: if you think your software will make a better drug cheaper, then make a better drug cheaper.”
Drew Waight
Founder, Hecate Bio
Drew Waight has spent 15 years inside the drug pipeline. He is a named inventor on four clinical-stage biologics, including fetrastobart vedotin, a PD-L1 ADC in Phase 3 at Pfizer, and MK-8294, a Merck/Janux conditional T-cell engager where he is first inventor.
At Seagen he was the lead computational and structural scientist on the design of novel payloads, solving 14 tubulin–payload crystal structures. He engineered three ADCs that reached the clinic, and is first inventor on a site-specific conjugation patent granted in five countries.
At Systimmune he led and rebuilt the protein engineering and antibody discovery groups and co-invented new multispecific T-cell engager formats (4 patent families).
At Merck he co-led 4 programs and was protein engineering lead on 4 more. As Senior Director of Machine Learning he led the AI/ML initiative that produced BioPhi and developability models used in 15+ programs.
He trained as a structural biologist (NYU PhD, UCSF postdoc).
Get in touch
For scientific collaborations, partnerships and investor conversations.
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