New crescendo for Harold as she is named T-Therapeutics CEO

One of the highest profile casualties appears to have been Crescendo Biologics. CEO Theodora Harold was among a number of directors and staff that left the business. It is understood that its latest round of trials failed to live up to expectations which left the anticipated next tranche of funding out of reach.

Crescendo decided to close its labs at the Meditrina Building on Babraham Research Campus and sources tell us the exit is already underway and that the staff “have gone.”

Business Weekly has made several attempts to secure official confirmation over several days without response.

What we do know is that Harold has swiftly been snapped up as CEO of Allan Bradley’s T-Therapeutics. Founder and previous CEO, Professor Bradley will transition to the role of Chief Scientific Officer.

Since its $60 million Series A fundraise at the end of 2023, T-Therapeutics has launched its OpTiMus® platform which is able to address previously intractable TCR targets with fully human, high affinity binders.

Harold said: “I have been very impressed by T-Therapeutics’ world-leading science, the passion of the team and the first-in-class pipeline. The OpTiMus platform is uniquely able to address certain novel TCR targets and thus has the potential to transform the clinical landscape in both cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

Mission Therapeutics is OK financially for now but has had to lay off an unspecified number of staff in a business refocus.

A spokesperson tells Business Weekly: “Mission Therapeutics is focusing on its clinical assets, MTX325 and MTX652 and has a financial runway well into 2026. However, it is closing the pre-clinical laboratory operations in Cambridge. We are not commenting further.”

Kalium Health has been struggling and Tom Collings is no longer CEO. We understand the company was hit by an agreement with an overseas enterprise falling through and is seeking unspecified fresh funding.

A core team is engaged in other partnership discussions to identify financial possibilities, we understand, as Kalium undergoes “a strategic shift.” A source told Business Weekly: “The situation around us has been challenging for coming up to two years now. There are some green shoots but I think things will take some time to fully shake out.”