CAMBRIDGE, England, June 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Crescendo Biologics Limited (Crescendo) today announces the appointment of Matthew Roe as Chief Business Officer. Matthew joins Crescendo from Genzyme Corporation where he was Senior Director, Business Development & Licensing.

During a 23-year career at Genzyme, Matthew was active in licensing, alliance management, acquisition, divestment, and sales and marketing, and saw the corporation develop from an entrepreneurial start-up to a leading multi-national biotechnology company. He negotiated and managed multiple agreements for drug delivery technologies in the USA, Europe and Japan and was also a core team member on the divestment of Genzyme's Pharmaceuticals business.

Mike Romanos, CEO of Crescendo said: "Matthew's track record in business development speaks for itself. He has an exceptional depth of experience in business strategy and in implementing agreements across multiple territories. I look forward to working with him as we build on the significant advances we have made at Crescendo and position the Company to deliver real value from its world class, proprietary technology platforms."

Matthew Roe, CBO of Crescendo said: "The monoclonal antibody market is rapidly growing and continues to be a major focus for the pharma industry. Companies are searching for new platforms and approaches, particularly in the area of antibody fragments. Crescendo's technology platform, IP and insight create a strong foundation from which to make a significant impact in the field and I am delighted to be joining the Company's management team as it seeks to grow to become a leader in next-generation antibody therapeutics."

About Crescendo Biologics Ltd

Crescendo Biologics will apply highly innovative antibody fragment technologies to the development of new targeted therapeutics. The Crescendo transgenic mouse platform under development has the potential to rapidly and predictably generate high-affinity human heavy chain antibodies that readily yield V_H fragments that have no requirement for humanisation. This is combined with a powerful in vitro ribosome display technology which offers significant advantages over existing approaches in antibody optimisation. V_H fragments provide great flexibility as a starting point for the development of new targeted therapeutics combining the specificity and binding affinity of antibodies with certain desirable characteristics of small molecules.

Crescendo's technologies were invented by scientists at the Babraham Institute, Cambridge (UK). The Company has raised £4.5 million in seed funding from leading life sciences investors, Sofinnova Partners with Aitua, Avlar BioVentures and the Rainbow Seed Fund also participating.  http://www.crescendobiologics.com

Contacts

Mike Romanos/Amanda Bettison
Crescendo Biologics
Tel: +44(0)1223-497140
Email: mromanos/abettison@crescendobiologics.com

Chris Gardner
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: +44(0)207-638-9571
Email: chris.gardner@citigatedr.co.uk

SOURCE Crescendo Biologics Limited