Syncona Ltd (LON:SYNC), a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding global leaders in life sciences, today announced that it has committed £48.0 million of a £50.4 million Series B financing to Gyroscope Therapeutics with the further £2.4 million being committed by Cambridge Innovation Capital. Syncona retains an 80 per cent stake in the business. Its holding is valued at cost and held at £56.0 million, following the investment of the first tranche of the Series B financing of £22.0 million.
· £48 million commitment to Gyroscope in a £50.4 million Series B financing in line with Syncona’s strategy to found, build and fund its companies ambitiously over the long-term
· Series B financing increases Syncona’s total commitment to Gyroscope since foundation to £82.0 million; Syncona retains an 80 per cent stake in the business[1]
Gyroscope is a leading clinical-stage, retinal gene therapy company targeting the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration (dry-AMD), one of the leading cause of blindness and for which there is currently no therapy. Gyroscope’s approach represents one of the first potential applications of gene therapy beyond rare diseases. Its manufacturing and surgical platform allows product development at commercial scale and quality, which will support the company’s ambition to deliver treatments to patients in a disease impacting more than 35 million people worldwide.
The Series B financing brings Gyroscope’s total funding to date to £82.0 million and is expected to allow the Company to complete its phase 1/2 study, commence its phase 2 study and expand the use of its surgical delivery platform in the clinic to further establish safe, consistent delivery of gene therapy to the retina.
Khurem Farooq, Chief Executive Officer of Gyroscope, said: “We are grateful for the confidence Syncona and CIC have shown in Gyroscope as we continue to deliver on our promise to bring gene therapy beyond rare disease to help the millions of people worldwide with dry-AMD. Both our investigational therapy GT005 and the Orbit Surgical Delivery System are being used to treat patients in early-stage clinical trials and this funding will allow us to collect and analyse safety data needed to then move into larger trials and eventually bring them to market.”
Chris Hollowood, Chief Investment Officer of Syncona Ltd and Chairman of Gyroscope, said: “This financing further demonstrates our strategy to scale companies we have founded ambitiously so they can become global leaders in their domain.
“Gyroscope is an important part of Syncona’s gene therapy strategy as we seek to utilise our expertise in the area to move beyond rare diseases into more prevalent diseases and build the next generation of products.”
[1] Syncona’s ownership stake at the point full current commitments are invested.
