GlycoMimetics acquires Crescent Biopharma and with it CR 001.

Upon completion of the transaction, the Company plans to operate under the name Crescent Biopharma, Inc. “Crescent was founded to harness recent breakthroughs in immuno-oncology and antibody-drug conjugates that pave the way for a next generation of therapies for patients with solid tumors,” said Jonathan Violin, interim CEO at Crescent and Venture Partner at Fairmount. “Our lead program CR 001 was precision engineered to impart a cooperative binding pharmacology for VEGF x PD-1 bispecific blockade; this mechanism recently demonstrated superior efficacy to the anti-PD1 antibody pembrolizumab in a third party head-to-head Phase III clinical trial. The specific level of cooperativity engineered into CR 001 reflects a delicate mechanistic balance, which is essential to our confidence in this program. This transaction and financing enable a potentially rapid development path for CR 001, and for the antibody drug conjugate programs CR 002 and CR 003.”