LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, "Innovations", “the Group”) has announced the appointment of Dr Paolo Paoletti MD, as Executive Chairman of portfolio company Kesios Therapeutics (“Kesios” or “the Company”), which is developing novel therapeutics for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other cancers.
Dr. Paoletti was formerly the first appointed president of GSK Oncology, where he was responsible for championing an organisation of more than 2,000 professionals around the world dedicated to fighting the causes and impacts of cancer. As the leader of the business unit, he had full accountability for the overall oncology business within GSK and oversaw all activities from early drug discovery through clinical development, launch and life cycle management. During his tenure at GSK, seven new medicines to treat different kinds of cancer were approved globally, generating annual sales of about US$2 billion. In 2014, GSK sold the Oncology business for US$16 billion to Novartis in a complex 3 way transaction.
Dr Paoletti is also non-executive director of PsiOxus Therapeutics, Innovation’s sixth largest portfolio company, which is developing innovative oncolytic immuno-oncology treatments for cancer.
Kesios, which is based in the Imperial incubator in South Kensington, was created to develop and commercialise certain research from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London. Professor Guido Franzoso and his team there have identified a novel drug target within a pathway that appears to be critical in promoting cancer cell survival in certain white blood cells of patients with multiple myeloma and other malignancies. Kesios is developing novel drug candidates that disrupt this target and demonstrate the potential to specifically and selectively kill cancer cells, without causing toxicity to normal cells.
On 8 October 2014, Innovations completed a seed investment of £1.85 million in Kesios.
In addition, the development programme led by the company’s founder, Prof. Guido Franzoso, has also been awarded a Biomedical Catalyst grant from the Medical Research Council (MRC) up to the value of £3.9 million to further his research into novel drug targets to treat multiple myeloma. Kesios continues to benefit from an ongoing collaboration with Imperial College London.
At 31 January 2015 Innovations had a 48.4% interest in Kesios with a fair value of £1.9 million.
Paolo Paoletti, said:
”I’m extremely pleased to take this role to accelerate the clinical development of this new molecule and, hopefully, to translate the very innovative and interesting pre-clinical science in an impactful medicine for patients affected by Multiple Myeloma and other forms of cancer.”
Maina Bhaman, Director of Healthcare Ventures, Imperial Innovations, said:
“We are delighted that Paolo has agreed to join Kesios as Executive Chairman. He brings a wealth of industry experience, which has already proved to be invaluable to PsiOxus and no doubt will help the Kesios team to accelerate the development of their programme.
“The fact that we are able to attract such experienced individuals to our portfolio, speaks volumes about the quality of the science we are commercialising and our philosophy of putting together world class management with world class science.”
Notes to editors
About Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk
Imperial Innovations Group plc creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies developed from the academic research within the ‘Golden Triangle’ broadly bounded by London, Cambridge and Oxford, which is home to the UK’s four leading research-intensive universities.
This area is home to many new technology companies through its proximity to the academic communities of Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and University College London, as well as other leading research institutions.
Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and University College London collectively have research income of £1.4 billion per annum and are ranked as four of the top ten Universities in the world (source: QS World University Rankings 2014/15).
Innovations supports scientists and entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas through the licensing of intellectual property, by leading the formation of new companies, providing facilities in the early stages, providing investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate development, providing operational expertise and recruiting high-calibre management teams. It also runs an incubator in London that is the initial home for many of its technology spin-outs.
Since admission of its shares to trading on AIM in 2006, Innovations has raised more than £346.0 million of equity from investors, which has enabled it to invest in some of the most exciting spin-outs to come out of UK academic research. In addition, the Group has a £30.0 million loan facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for investment in biotech and therapeutics businesses.
During the period from admission on AIM up until 31 January 2015, Innovations has invested a total of £198.3 million across its portfolio companies, which have raised collectively investment of £926.8 million rising to £1.0 billion including post period end investments and commitments.
About Kesios Therapeutics Limited - www.kesios.com
Kesios Therapeutics is a UK-based biotech company formed in 2012 as a spin-out from Imperial College London. The company is focused on developing novel drug candidates for the treatment of multiple myeloma and other malignancies which target a critical component of the NF-kappaB signaling pathway that is overactive in certain types of cancer. This signaling pathway is involved in driving normal cell death but when overactive allows cancer cells to survive.
Kesios is funded by Imperial Innovations Group plc.
