Kesios Therapeutics raises £19 million

RNS Reach

2 December 2015

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations portfolio company Kesios Therapeutics raises £19 million in Series A funding round

Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'the Group', 'Innovations') is pleased to announce that portfolio company Kesios Therapeutics ('Kesios' or 'the Company'), which is developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other cancers, has closed a £19.0 million Series A funding round from a syndicate of leading venture investors including Innovations, SV Life Sciences and Abingworth. Innovations has committed £6.0 million to Kesios as part of the Series A financing. Innovations' aggregate investment in Kesios to date is £3.3 million, and after this funding round, the Group will hold a 42.0 per cent stake in the Company.

Concurrent with the financing, Kesios has expanded its leadership team appointing Paolo Paoletti MD, formerly President of GSK Oncology, as Chief Executive Officer. He joined the company as Executive Chairman earlier in 2015. Jane Robertson, MD, joined as Chief Medical Officer after leading clinical development activities at AstraZeneca for a number of oncology products, including most recently the development and registration in the EU and US of Lynparza®. Peter Charlton was appointed Chief Scientific Officer having previously worked at Vertex as VP, Biology. Dayle Hogg has also joined Kesios as Chief Operating Officer following his role as an investment manager at Imperial Innovations.

Maina Bhaman, Director of Healthcare Ventures, Imperial Innovations commented:

"It is just over a year since Innovations completed a seed funding round in Kesios and in that time the company has made swift progress in building a world-class management team to advance its innovative science and drug development.

"The company's lead drug candidate is about to enter clinical studies and with this substantial Series A financing behind it, this team is in a strong position to deliver a new treatment option for patients with multiple myeloma."

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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 £346.0 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 has invested a total of £236.8 million across its portfolio companies, which have raised collectively investment of £1.3 billion.

About Kesios Therapeutics - www.kesios.com

Kesios is developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other cancers. KES-0001, the company's lead drug candidate, is about to enter clinical studies as a potential treatment for multiple myeloma. The company was created to commercialise research led by Professor Guido Franzoso from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London.