Mike Romanos Appointed as CSO of Crescendo Biologics

Cambridge, UK 12 October 2009 - Mike Romanos has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer of Crescendo Biologics (“Crescendo”) and joins the Board as a Director. Dr Romanos will take leadership of the company and its proprietary antibody fragment technologies following a £4.5 million seed fundraising round led by Sofinnova Partners (see separate announcement).

Dr Romanos has more than 23 years biotech and pharma industry experience and within the last 10 years has held senior global positions leading major parts of GlaxoSmithKline Discovery.  In his most recent role as VP, Discovery Technology, at GSK, he had global responsibility for genomic and cellular platforms, and a central involvement in target and biomarker selection across all of GSK’s therapeutic areas. Prior to that, as VP, Gene Expression and Protein Biochemistry, he had global responsibility for the generation of biologicals to support all of GSK’s Discovery activities, for use in screening, structural biology and as biopharmaceuticals. During this phase he established GSK’s advanced antibody lead discovery capability which was critical to generating the pipeline of in-house monoclonal antibodies.

“I am excited to be taking this role at Crescendo,” said Mike Romanos. “This new company has the components to build class-leading platforms in the field of next generation antibody therapeutics. With the funding in place, we are well-placed to develop our technology platforms and then, drawing on our insights in therapeutic target opportunities, begin applying them to in-house projects and future partnership programmes.”

“Mike’s appointment is great news for Crescendo,” said Graziano Seghezzi of Sofinnova Partners. “Not only does he bring a wealth of drug discovery and scientific knowledge, but he also has a rare combination of st rong managerial ability and entrepreneurial enthusiasm.”

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