Crescendo Biologics, Takeda Collaborate

Crescendo Biologics Limited (‘Crescendo’ or the ‘Company’) has announced a global, strategic, multi-target collaboration and licence agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd (‘Takeda’) worth up to $790 million. Crescendo will use its proprietary transgenic platform and engineering expertise to discover and optimally configure Humabody® candidates (drug conjugates and immuno-oncology therapeutics) against multiple targets selected by Takeda.

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 over the years post preclinical development.

In addition, Crescendo will be eligible to receive royalties on Humabody®-based product sales by Takeda. In the nature of such collaboration and licence agreements, these receipts are contingent upon the successful achievement of milestones. As at 31 January 2016, Innovations had a 22.7% interest in the issued share capital of Crescendo.

Dr Rob Woodman, Director of Healthcare Ventures at Imperial Innovations, said: “This major collaboration with a global pharma company is a strong validation of Crescendo’s proprietary platform and a testament to the performance of both the team and the technology. “Upon achieving preclinical and clinical milestones, Crescendo is eligible to receive significant payments, supporting discovery, development and commercialisation of Humabody® - based therapeutics for cancer indications. “With the backing of Takeda, Crescendo and its Humabody® therapeutics can play a key role in the development of the next generation of cancer treatments.”