It’s exhausting for preclinical biotech firms to go public today as buyers search for human information that may scale back funding threat. Crescent Biopharma is greater than a yr away from the clinic, however becoming a member of the general public markets now allows the biotech to capitalize on a current groundbreaking most cancers drug improvement nonetheless recent in buyers’ minds.
Crescent goes public in a reverse merger with GlycoMimetics, the businesses introduced Tuesday. When the transaction is full, the merged entity will function beneath the Crescent Biopharma identify. It will likely be led by Jonathan Violin, Crescent’s present CEO, who is predicted to develop into interim CEO of the mixed firm. Crescent will even be capitalized with $200 million from agreements with a choose group of buyers which have pledged to buy the mixed firm’s securities. These purchases will occur instantly after the merger closes within the second quarter of 2025.
Crescent’s lead program is CR-001, a bispecific antibody in improvement for most cancers. Most firms attempting to construct an funding case speak about how their medication are differentiated from rivals. Crescent’s executives are doing the alternative, touting similarities to a different drug: Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab. Final month, that drug posted information displaying it topped the blockbuster Merck immunotherapy Keytruda in a head-to-head Section 3 check. In sufferers with superior circumstances of non-small cell lung most cancers, remedy with ivonescimab led to a 49% discount within the threat of illness development or loss of life in comparison with remedy with Keytruda, Summit stated.
Keytruda is an antibody designed to dam a specific checkpoint protein, which in flip allows immune cells to acknowledge and go after most cancers cells. Ivonescimab, found by Summit’s China-based associate Akeso, is a bispecific antibody that blocks two targets: PD-1, the identical receptor focused by Keytruda, and the cancer-driving protein VEGF. Crescent’s CR-001 can be a bispecific antibody designed to dam each of these targets. Talking throughout a Tuesday convention name, Violin stated his firm’s drug replicates the properties of ivonescimab. Like Summit’s drug, Crescent’s bispecific antibody works by cooperative binding, which means it’s most lively within the presence of each VEGF and PD-1.
“This allows the molecule to ship advantages to sufferers which might be greater than the sum of its elements, and to take action safely,” Violin stated. “This novel format allows VEGF to create ‘daisy chains’ of drug molecule, linking them collectively and rising the efficiency for PD-1 blockade. This distinctive design additionally could allow localization of drug to the tumor microenvironment, which can assist scale back systemic toxicity.”
CR-001 is present process the preclinical analysis that might assist an investigational new drug software, which is predicted within the fourth quarter of subsequent yr or early 2026. Assuming the applying is cleared, preliminary medical information might come within the second half of 2026, Violin stated. As a result of CR-001 replicates the properties of Summit’s drug, Crescent believes information from a couple of dozen sufferers can “join the dots” again to information from a whole bunch of ivonescimab-treated sufferers.
“We all know the ivonescimab information has catalyzed large curiosity in advancing next-generation checkpoint inhibitor remedy — the PD1/PDL1 class is presently a $50 billion market and rising, so when one thing beats the chief of such a big and vital drug class, we anticipate competitors,” Violin stated. “We anticipate this will likely be just like what we’ve seen just lately within the weight problems subject — and we consider we’ve the benefit of strategic design. CR-001 was crafted particularly to string the identical immunotherapy needle as ivonescimab, placing us in a powerful aggressive place.”
Competitors contains BioNTech and Instil Bio, each of which struck alliances previously yr with China-based firms for rights to bispecific antibodies that concentrate on each PD-1 and VEGF. Each packages are in medical improvement in China.
Crescent is the fifth firm to emerge from Paragon Therapeutics, a agency that conducts biotechnology analysis and kinds new firms round that science. The primary Paragon spinout was Apogee Therapeutics, which emerged in late 2022 with a lead drug candidate in improvement for atopic dermatitis. Final yr, Apogee raised greater than $300 million in a conventional IPO that got here forward of the beginning of Section 1 testing.
Crescent’s pipeline of medicine from Paragon contains two preclinical antibody drug conjugates, CR-002 and CR-003. The corporate isn’t disclosing a lot element about both program, however Violin stated CR-002 “targets a extremely compelling pathway” and the drug provides “the prospect to be first at school.”
GlycoMimetics was targeted on growing therapies for most cancers and inflammatory illnesses with small molecules that inhibit carbohydrate interactions on the floor of cells. In July, FDA instructed the corporate its lead drug candidate, uproleselan, a possible remedy for superior circumstances of acute myeloid leukemia, wanted an extra medical trial. Subsequently, the corporate laid off workers and introduced it could discover strategic options. Crescent stated it intends to find out potential paths ahead for uproleselan.
The personal funding within the newly merged Crescent will likely be led by Fairmount, Venrock Healthcare Capital Companions, BVF Companions, and an unnamed “massive funding administration agency.” Different contributors embody Paradigm BioCapital, RTW Investments, Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, Frazier Life Sciences, Commodore Capital, Perceptive Advisers, Deep Monitor Capital, Boxer Capital Administration, Soleus, Logos Capital, Driehaus Capital Administration, Braidwell LP, and Wellington Administration.
When the enterprise mixture closes, Crescent’s stockholders will personal about 96.9% of the corporate; GlycoMimetics stockholders will personal about 3.1%. Crescent believes its capital will likely be ample to final into 2027. By then, Crescent and its friends ought to have extra information demonstrating how their respective bispecific antibody most cancers medication are working in sufferers.
Picture by Flickr consumer Lengyal Mark through a Inventive Commons license
