Innovations invests £1.85m in Kesios Therapeutics

RNS REACH

8 October 2014

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations completes £1.85 million investment in Kesios Therapeutics

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO or 'the Group', 'Innovations') has completed a seed investment of £1.85 million in oncology drug discovery company, Kesios Therapeutics ("Kesios").

Kesios is developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other blood-related cancers. The company has been created to commercialise research led by Professor Guido Franzoso, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London.

Professor Franzoso and his team have identified a novel drug target within a pathway that appears to be critical in promoting cancer cell survival in certain white blood cells of patients with multiple myeloma and other malignancies.

Kesios is developing novel drug candidates that disrupt this target and demonstrate the potential to specifically and selectively kill cancer cells, without causing toxicity to normal cells.

Innovations has now invested an aggregate of £1.85 million in Kesios and holds a 48.4 per cent stake in the company.

Initial seed funding from Innovations has been used to establish the business and bring in a strong leadership team, including the appointment of Alain Maiore, as CEO. Alain has more than 25 years' experience in the drug development industry and has held senior management roles within biotechnology businesses across Europe, including Evotec and CEREP. Most recently, Alain was a founding partner of Kurma Biofund, a life sciences Venture Capital fund with over €140m under management. He has also previously been Chairman of ERYTECH Pharma, Vice-Chairman of EyeGate Pharmaceuticals.

The funding in this round will enable Kesios to advance its pipeline of drug discovery and development programmes, validate the broader therapeutic opportunities in cancer for the company's drug candidates and develop its operational team.

Professor Franzoso and his team at Imperial College London have separately received a Biomedical Catalyst grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) up to the value of £3.9m, in order to validate the modality and efficacy of this novel drug target through the development of a distinct drug candidate to clinical proof of concept in multiple myeloma.

Dayle Hogg, Manager, Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations, said:

"We are delighted to be supporting Kesios with this seed funding round. The ground- breaking research of Professor Franzoso and his colleagues at Imperial College could have significant therapeutic benefits for patients with multiple myeloma and potentially for other cancers as well.

"Our investment in Kesios demonstrates Innovations' model of commercialising technology by bringing in high calibre management teams to work alongside outstanding academic research.

"Alain's appointment as CEO will enhance the company's commercial focus and accelerate Kesios' programmes into clinical development."

For further information contact:

About Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma, is an incurable disease of the bone marrow, which accounts for 2 per. cent of all cancer deaths. Over 100,000 patients are diagnosed with the disease each year in the US, Europe and Japan. Existing marketed therapeutics are at best likely only to induce short-term remission, rather than curing the disease. The current market for multiple myeloma therapies was estimated at $2.3 billion in 2009, rising to $5.3 billion by 2018.

About Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Imperial Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies developed from the academic research within the "golden triangle" broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford, which is home to the UK's four leading universities.

The Group supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas through the licensing of intellectual property, by leading the formation of new companies, providing facilities in the early stages, providing investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate development, providing operational expertise and recruiting high-calibre management teams. It also runs a Technology 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 today, Innovations also invests in opportunities arising from intellectual property developed at, or associated with, Cambridge University, Oxford University and University College London. These are the top four research intensive universities in Europe with a research income of over £1.3 billion per annum.

Innovations invests in the most promising opportunities from whichever technology sector they arise, but has built particular expertise in the key sectors of: therapeutics, medtech, engineering and materials, and ICT.

During the period from the admission of its shares to trading on AIM in 2006 to 31 January 2014, Innovations has invested a total of £160.9 million across its portfolio companies, which have raised collectively investment of over £750.0 million.