£17.5m funding round for Crescendo Biologics

RNS REACH

17 December 2013

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Leads £17.5m funding round for Crescendo Biologics

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), the leading technology commercialisation and investment group, has led a £17.5m ($28m) Series A financing for new portfolio company Crescendo Biologics ('Crescendo'), the Cambridge-based developer of human antibody fragment therapeutics. Innovations has committed £6.5m ($10m) in the round and was joined by new investor Astellas Venture Management as well as existing investor Sofinnova Partners. Following completion of the investment, Innovations will hold a 26.9% share in Crescendo.

The funds raised will be used to advance Crescendo's in-house development programmes in inflammation and oncology utilising its best-in-class VH fragment discovery platform. Crescendo's unique technology platform produces next-generation, antibody-based therapeutic proteins that have exciting applications beyond the scope of full-length antibodies.

Crescendo is establishing an internal pipeline including a transformational topical biologic for psoriasis and products for oncology indications. These programmes draw on the power of Crescendo's discovery platform to rapidly create novel, high-value product candidates that address areas of significant medical need. Crescendo is additionally planning to enter strategic discovery partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and collaborate in the development of targeted biologics including antibody drug conjugates (ADC).

Crescendo's technology is based on work carried out at the Babraham Institute, the world class life sciences research centre near Cambridge that is funded by the BBSRC, and with links to the University of Cambridge. The high quality management team is led by Mike Romanos, who has over 25 years' biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, including 10 years in R&D at GSK before moving to take leadership of Crescendo Biologics. The company has been known to Innovations since being formed in 2009.

Rob Woodman, Director of Healthcare Investments at Innovations, who joins the Crescendo Board, said:

"We are delighted to lead this round of investment in Crescendo Biologics. Having successfully developed its unique VH technology, a major bioengineering achievement, Crescendo is ideally positioned to deliver highly differentiated therapeutics. 

"Innovations is excited to be working alongside Crescendo management and other investors to further build the company's capabilities and pipeline."

Mike Romanos, Chief Executive Officer, Crescendo, said:

"I am delighted to welcome new investors of such high calibre to Crescendo. Now that we have built a first rate platform, this new investment will allow us to accelerate our internal pipeline and to enable key capabilities for external partnerships."

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Notes to editors

About Crescendo Biologics Ltd - www.crescendobiologics.com

Crescendo Biologics, based in Cambridge, UK, is focused on the discovery and development of best-in-class human VH antibody fragment therapeutics using its novel platform. Crescendo is enabling the major VH product formats (multivalent, half-life-extended and topical) for its own pipeline, focused in inflammation and oncology, and to make it the partner of choice for human VH fragment therapeutics.

Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Since founding in 1986, Innovations has invested in the most promising technologies from our brightest scientists. Today it is connected with four of the world's top research universities: Imperial College London, Cambridge and Oxford Universities and University College London. These centres of scientific excellence between them have a research income of over £1.3 billion per annum. Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas. It adds value by leading the formation of new spin-out companies, providing investment, encouraging co-investment as well as through its operational expertise. It also runs an Incubator in London that is the initial home for many of its technology spin-outs.

Originally formed as the Technology Transfer office for Imperial College - a role it still carries out - Innovations is today a significant technology investor and has built a portfolio of around 90 companies. Almost £150m has been invested by Innovations and £0.5bn has been raised in total by the portfolio companies. In 2013, a £30 million loan facility was agreed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for investment in biotech and therapeutics businesses.

Innovation invests in the most promising opportunities from whichever technology sector they arise and has built particular expertise in the key sectors of: Therapeutics, Medtech and devices, Engineering and materials and ICT.