10/10/2016
Today, Crescendo Biologics Limited (Crescendo), a spin-out from the Babraham Institute, has announced a collaboration and license agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited for the discovery, development and commercialisation of Crescendo’s Humabody® platform to develop therapeutics for cancers with a high unmet medical need. Crescendo’s technology platform utilises a transgenic mouse system originally developed by Babraham Institute researchers, including Dr Marianne Brüggemann and Dr Michael Taussig, to generate fully human antibody fragments suitable for a range of therapeutic purposes. Under the agreement, Crescendo will use its proprietary transgenic platform and engineering expertise to discover and optimally configure Humabody® candidates (Humabody® Drug Conjugates and Immuno-Oncology modulators) against multiple targets selected by Takeda. Takeda is a pharmaceutical company focused on research and development in oncology, gastroenterology and central nervous system therapeutic areas plus vaccines. “This collaboration with Takeda represents a significant step forward for Crescendo. It provides validation of our transgenic platform and our capabilities to rapidly assemble and configure small, differentiated Humabody®-based therapeutics, opening routes to novel biology,” said Dr Peter Pack, CEO, Crescendo Biologics. “As a leading global pharmaceutical company, Takeda brings extraordinary expertise in the oncology area with significant capabilities in developing and delivering novel medicines to patients. This first major collaboration enables us to accelerate innovative Humabody®-based product candidates.” 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. In addition, Crescendo will be eligible to receive royalties on Humabody®-based product sales by Takeda. Professor Michael Wakelam, Director of the Babraham Institute, said: “This is fantastic news for Crescendo and should be an extremely fruitful partnership. Crescendo’s continued success highlights the contribution fundamental bioscience makes to providing the foundation for technologies that mature to address areas of unmet clinical need.”
For the full press release from Crescendo, please follow the link: Crescendo Biologics and Takeda Enter Collaboration for Humabody®-based Therapeutics Worth up to $790m
10 October 2016