Company profile
Crescendo’s strategy is to exploit its class-leading next generation antibody platform to create differentiated medicines developed to Phase I/II through in-house product development and strategic partnerships.
Crescendo’s proprietary VH technology combines two highly desirable features of antibody platforms, in vivo generation and human origin, and applies them for the first time to antibody fragments.
The platform is based on the generation of human heavy chain antibodies in transgenic mice, analogous to heavy chain antibodies produced naturally in llamas. However in this case they are human, providing a source of candidate-quality VH fragments that have matured in vivo to have high affinity, stability and solubility, yet do not require humanisation. VH fragments are the smallest portions of immunoglobulin that retain target specificity and potency and, compared to whole antibodies, have properties more akin to small molecules, making them highly attractive therapeutic agents.
Our secondary platform, ribosome display, is a superior in vitro molecular evolution tool for further improving antibody affinity.
The company benefits from a management team that is highly experienced in all aspects of antibody discovery, development and target selection, and the support of a syndicate of experienced life science investors. It also retains ongoing links with the Babraham Institute, Cambridge.
History
In December 2008, two innovative antibody technologies and associated IP were spun out of the BBSRC’s world-renowned Babraham Institute (Cambridge, UK) forming the foundation of Crescendo Biologics. The first is a technology for in vivo generation of human heavy chain antibodies in transgenic mice, conceived by Dr Marianne Brüggemann, a pioneer in the field who was involved in the first demonstration of transgenic human antibody mouse technology. The second is a ribosome display platform for in vitro molecular evolution of antibody fragments, developed by Drs Mike Taussig and Mingyue He.
Seed round funding was provided by an investment consortium led by Sofinnova with participation from Avlar BioVentures, Aitua (representing the Babraham group) and the Rainbow Seed Fund. With a second closing in September 2009, at £4.5 million this was the largest biotech seed funding in the UK in 2009.
The company’s operations were established on the Babraham Research Campus during the course of 2009, enabling the company to maintain close links with its originating science base. In April 2009 Dr Mike Romanos was appointed Chief Scientific Officer to lead Crescendo’s management team and R&D. In December 2009, Clive Dix was appointed the company’s non-executive Chairman.
Management
Mike Romanos PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Director
Mike Romanos is CSO and Executive Director of Crescendo. He has more than 20 years’ biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, and within the last 10 years has held international executive positions in GlaxoSmithKline R&D before moving to take leadership of Crescendo Biologics. His industry and science experience covers most areas of drug discovery science and technology, and several therapeutic areas. During his career he has made significant contributions to GSK’s drug development pipeline, and broadly to drug discovery strategy and technology. He played a key role in establishing GSK’s advanced antibody lead discovery capability which generated the pipeline of in-house monoclonal antibodies, several of which are in clinical development.
Mike’s academic training started with a degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, followed by a PhD in Molecular Virology at Imperial College. He then undertook academic research on Virology at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and in Yeast Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at the Leicester Biocentre, before being recruited into the biotech arm of The Wellcome Foundation.
Amanda Bettison, Head of Business Operations
Amanda Bettison manages Crescendo’s business operations and its financial and legal affairs, and is Company Secretary to the Board. Amanda has worked closely with technology companies for the past 10 years, starting as a corporate finance researcher at Deloitte’s, before moving into venture capital at the Cambridge Gateway Fund. There she became responsible for all aspects of the Fund’s investor relations, financial reporting and regulatory compliance. In 2006 Amanda moved to Babraham, where she helped establish Aitua Limited, an early-stage investment vehicle for biotech spin-outs in Cambridge and throughout the UK. Amanda has been involved with Crescendo since the spin-out of its technologies from the Babraham Institute in 2008.
Amanda has a degree in German and Ancient Greek from the University of Birmingham, the EVCA Institute’s Finance Director Course and the UKSIP Investment Management Certificate.
Bryan Edwards PhD, Head of In Vitro Platforms
Bryan Edwards joined Crescendo in 2009 to lead and develop the company's in vitro antibody display platform, drawing on his expertise in the development and use of antibody library techniques (phage and ribosome display) for use in antibody discovery and optimisation. Bryan began his career at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, and then joined Cambridge Antibody Technology in 1996. During the next 13 years, until the recent merger with MedImmune to form the Biologics Division of AstraZeneca, he played a key role leading groups developing antibody library technologies and progressing projects. This work included management of a team established to deliver antibodies for the CAT collaboration with HGS, which resulted in many lead antibodies, including several in clinical development (BenLysta, HGS-ETR1 and HGS-ETR2).
Bryan has a degree in molecular biology from the University of Portsmouth and obtained his PhD in immunology at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.
Joyce Young PhD, Head of Transgenic Platforms
Joyce Young joined Crescendo in 2010 to lead and develop the company’s in vivo platform for the production of humanised antibodies. Joyce has extensive expertise in basic immunology and antibody generation gained from academic research undertaken at Imperial Cancer Research Fund Labs, University of Cambridge, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. A particular focus of this work was autoimmunity, tolerance and oncology. At the Sanger Institute Joyce worked with John McCafferty to develop phage display for high throughput antibody generation and genome-wide characterisation of protein function. Subsequently she joined MedImmune where she played a key role in establishing a capability for generating antibodies from conventional and transgenic mice, and generating leads for several projects.
Joyce has a degree in Immunology from the University of Glasgow and a PhD in autoimmunity/tolerance from the University of Bristol.
Yumin Teng PhD, Head of Molecular Biology
Yumin Teng joined Crescendo in the summer of 2010 to establish an in-house molecular biology division. Yumin has more than 10 years’ experience developing novel technologies and techniques exploiting yeast genome including artificial chromosomes (YACs) to study genome stability, first at the School of Biological Sciences at Swansea, and later at the School of Medicine at Cardiff University. Prior to this, he worked at the National Institute for the Control of Pharmaceutical and Biological Products in Beijing, establishing QC standards for biopharmaceutical products.
Yumin has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Wales Swansea, an MSc in Analytical Chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China and took his BSc Chemistry at Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Board
Clive Dix, Chairman
Clive Dix has more than 20 years' experience in life science research, with over 15 years in senior pharmaceutical industry positions, and a degree and PhD in Pharmacology. His expertise includes an in-depth understanding of all facets of drug discovery and development, a broad knowledge of the science and commercial landscape of a variety of therapeutic areas, and solid experience of the pharmaceutical business and finance community supporting the sector.
Clive was previously co-founder and Chief Executive of PowderMed Ltd, a vaccines development company acquired by Pfizer in November 2006; and before that he was Senior Vice President, Research and Development and a Board member of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc until its acquisition by Chiron Vaccines in 2003. Clive began his career in industry at Ciba-Geigy and then GlaxoWellcome, where he left as UK Research Director in 2001. Clive is a recent past-Chairman of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Crescendo Biologics and Modern Biosciences plc, and CEO of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
David Brown, Non-Executive Director
David Brown has over thirty years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry both in research and in senior executive roles. He served with four of the top ten Pharma companies: Zeneca, Pfizer, Glaxo, and most recently with F. Hoffman La-Roche as Global Head of Drug Discovery, Roche Pharma. He has extensive experience of pharmaceutical R&D in all phases from early discovery through clinical trials and has experience of leading research in all major disease areas. Whilst at Pfizer he was named co-inventor on the patent for Viagra, and he led the team that developed Viagra through to proof of concept (clinical efficacy) in man. At Roche, David also served on the committee responsible for clinical drug development and he was a core member of the Business Development Committee responsible for in-licensing of products and for technology agreements and acquisitions. David is Chairman of Amura Ltd and Babraham Bioscience Technologies Ltd.
Alan Goodman, Non-Executive Director
Alan Goodman has founded or co-founded many biotechnology and healthcare companies over the last 25 years, including Agricultural Genetics Company, Medeva plc, Chiroscience Group plc, Acambis plc, Oxford BioMedica plc, CeNeS Pharmaceuticals plc, Core Group plc and Amura Limited. He was Chief Executive of Acambis plc, non-executive Chairman of Oxford BioMedica plc and is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of Paion AG and Chief Executive of Avlar BioVentures Limited and a director of a number of private companies.
Mike Romanos, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Director
Mike Romanos is CSO and Executive Director of Crescendo. He has more than 20 years’ biotech and pharmaceutical industry experience, and within the last 10 years has held international executive positions in GlaxoSmithKline R&D before moving to take leadership of Crescendo Biologics. His industry and science experience covers most areas of drug discovery science and technology, and several therapeutic areas. During his career he has made significant contributions to GSK’s drug development pipeline, and broadly to drug discovery strategy and technology. He played a key role in establishing GSK’s advanced antibody lead discovery capability which generated the pipeline of in-house monoclonal antibodies, several of which are in clinical development. Mike’s academic training started with a degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, followed by a PhD in Molecular Virology at Imperial College. He then undertook academic research on Virology at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research and in Yeast Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at the Leicester Biocentre, before being recruited into the biotech arm of The Wellcome Foundation.
Graziano Seghezzi, Non-Executive Director
Graziano Seghezzi brings nearly a decade of European venture capital investment experience to Sofinnova Partners, where he has been a partner focused on life sciences investment since joining the firm in 2006.
Graziano has been instrumental in targeting, investing in, and nurturing the growth of a number of Sofinnova Partners’ portfolio companies, including: Creabilis Therapeutics (Italy), a specialty dermatology company developing products in multiple clinical areas such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis; GlycoVaxyn (Switzerland), a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of novel vaccines; and Omthera (USA), specialized in cardiovascular disorders with a best-in-class omega-3 drug. Graziano is a board member of each company.
Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners’ Paris-based team, Graziano was principal at Index Ventures in Geneva, Switzerland, where he invested in biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals companies. Before this, he worked for Sofinnova Partners, identifying new investment opportunities in Italian pharmaceutical and medical device companies out of Milan, Italy. Graziano began his career as a biomedical researcher at New York University’s School of Medicine, where he gained five years of hands-on experience studying the molecular mechanism of angiogenesis in oncology and cardiovascular diseases.
Graziano has a degree in genetics and microbiology from the University of Pavia (Italy) and an MBA from the RSM, Erasmus University (Netherlands).
Investors
Sofinnova Partners is an independent venture capital firm based in Paris, France. For over 35 years, the firm has backed nearly 500 companies at different stages of development – pure creations, spin-offs, as well as turnaround situations – and worked alongside Europe’s key entrepreneurs in the technology, life sciences and cleantech sectors. With more than €1 billion of funds under management, Sofinnova Partners’ experienced team and hands-on approach in nurturing and supporting portfolio companies through to exit have created market leaders and multiplied revenues, from landmark historical investments including Genentech and Biogen to more recent successes such as Actelion, Vistaprint and CoreValve. With a global mindset, the firm has offices in Shanghai, China and a sister organization in San Francisco, California. Please visit www.sofinnova.fr for more information on Sofinnova’s team and portfolio.
Avlar is a specialist biotechnology venture capital company and is the manager of Avlar BioVentures Fund I, Avlar BioVentures Fund II and The Cambridge Gateway Fund. All three funds are focused on seed and early stage investments and are used to invest in emerging bioscience technologies. Avlar's approach to investment is very much 'hands on', working intensively with companies in the critical stages of development from pre-formation to second round of financing, applying its strategic, entrepreneurial and biotech industry skills. Please visit www.avlar.com for more information.
Aitua Limited manages an investment portfolio of companies engaged in biomedical research having made investments in early stage companies. The Company has invested in a number of spin-out opportunities in particular those from the University and public research establishments, and in particular has an especially close working relationship with the Babraham Institute (a BBSRC funded research site), which has already generated exciting and unique opportunities. The company has also diversified its sources of deal flow, making investments in spin-outs from other BBSRC establishments, the University of Warwick, and its Cambridge networks. Aitua may continue to make future investments.
The £10m Rainbow Seed Fund www.rainbowseedfund.com was established in 2002 with funding from the Office of Science and Innovation to commercialise scientific research in a leading group of the UK publicly funded institutions, our partners. The Fund, which is independently managed by Midven Ltd, made its first investment in 2002, and currently has a portfolio of over 20 companies which have raised over £77,000,000 of third party capital.
The Fund invests at the earliest stages of a technology’s development, and helps to turn an idea into a business by actively identifying and supporting experienced management and facilitating additional co-investment. Rainbow's partners spend over £1 billion on research and development every year giving the Fund privileged access to high quality investment propositions at the earliest stage.