Crescendo Biologics sign collaboration with Takeda

10 October 2016

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Portfolio company Crescendo Biologics signs collaboration and licence agreement with Takeda worth up to $790m

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO or 'the Group', 'Innovations') notes that portfolio company Crescendo Biologics Limited ('Crescendo' or the 'Company'), the drug discovery and developer of Humabody®-based therapeutics, has announced a global, strategic, multi-target collaboration and licence agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd ('Takeda') worth up to $790 million.

Crescendo will use its proprietary transgenic platform and engineering expertise to discover and optimally configure Humabody® candidates (drug conjugates and immuno-oncology therapeutics) against multiple targets selected by Takeda.

Under the terms of the agreement, Crescendo is eligible to receive up to $36 million, in a combination of an upfront payment, investment, research funding and preclinical milestones. Takeda will have the right to develop and commercialise Humabody®-based therapeutics resulting from the collaboration.

Crescendo is also eligible to receive further clinical development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments of up to $754 million over the years post preclinical development. In addition, Crescendo will be eligible to receive royalties on Humabody®-based product sales by Takeda. In the nature of such collaboration and licence agreements, these receipts are contingent upon the successful achievement of milestones.

As at 31 January 2016, Innovations had a 22.7% interest in the issued share capital of Crescendo.

Dr Rob Woodman, Director of Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations, said:

"This major collaboration with a global pharma company is a strong validation of Crescendo's proprietary platform and a testament to the performance of both the team and the technology.

"Upon achieving preclinical and clinical milestones, Crescendo is eligible to receive significant payments, supporting discovery, development and commercialisation of Humabody® - based therapeutics for cancer indications.

"With the backing of Takeda, Crescendo and its Humabody® therapeutics can play a key role in the development of the next generation of cancer treatments."

Notes to editors

About Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Innovations") creates, builds and invests in pioneering technology companies and licensing opportunities developed from outstanding scientific research from the 'Golden Triangle', the geographical region broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford. This area has an unrivalled cluster of outstanding academic research and technology businesses, and is home to four of the world's top 10 universities, as well as leading research institutions, the cream of the UK's science and technology businesses and many of its leading investors.

Innovations supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas, through the licensing of intellectual property, by leading the formation of new companies, by recruiting high-calibre management teams and by providing investment and encouraging co-investment. Innovations remains an active investor over the life of its portfolio companies, with the majority of Innovations' investment going into businesses in which it is already a shareholder.

Since becoming a public company in 2006, Innovations has raised more than £440 million of equity from investors, which has enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has agreed £80.0 million in loan facilities from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Between Innovations' admission to AIM (August 2006) and 31 July 2015, Innovations had invested a total of £236.8 million across its portfolio companies, which had raised collectively investment of £1.3 billion.

About Cresecendo Biologics - www.crescendobiologics.com

Crescendo Biologics is a biopharmaceutical company involved in discovering and developing potent, highly differentiated Humabody® therapeutics with a focus on cancer. The Company's Humabody® therapeutics are based on its proprietary, robust and highly efficient fully human VH domain technology platform.

Crescendo is building a pipeline of new differentiated medicines, including Humabody® Drug Conjugates (HDCs) and multi-specific immuno-oncology (IO) modulators, through in-house development and strategic partnerships.

Crescendo's technology platform is centred on a unique and proprietary transgenic mouse, which enables the benefits of in vivo maturation to be harnessed thereby naturally optimising the affinity and biophysical properties of Humabodies. Compared with monoclonal antibodies, Humabodies offer a unique combination of potential benefits that results from their small size, cost-effective production and modular plug & play engineering options for generating novel bi- or multi-specific formats.

Crescendo is located in Cambridge, UK, and is backed by blue-chip investors including Imperial Innovations, Sofinnova Partners, Astellas Venture Management and EMBL Ventures.