Crescendo Biologics, a developer of antibody fragment technologies for new targeted therapeutics, has raised £4.5m in a seed-funding round led by Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, with Aitua, Avlar BioVentures and the Rainbow Seed Fund also participating.
Cambridge UK-based Crescendo is developing a transgenic mouse platform with the potential to rapidly generate high-affinity human heavy chain antibodies that readily yield VH fragments that have no requirement for humanisation.
The funds will be used to advance the development of the platforms and initiate the development of proprietary therapeutics, following the appointment of the CSO, Dr Mike Romanos, who has extensive experience in biopharmaceutical R&D.
Commenting on the round, Romanos said: “This substantial funding from experienced life sciences investors provides a powerful validation of our approach to creating next-generation targeted biological therapeutics based on fragment antibodies. With the funding in place, we will be able to accelerate the development of our technology platforms and advance their application to in-house projects”.
FinSMEs
12/10/2009