Syncona
Limited
Syncona
adds two new oncology companies to its portfolio
20 June 2024
·
Syncona leads a €80 million
(£68.4 million) Series B financing in iOnctura, a clinical-stage
oncology company developing innovative therapies for neglected and
hard-to-treat cancers. Syncona has invested €30 million (£25.7
million) and will have a 23.0[1]
per cent stake in the business
·
Syncona launches Yellowstone,
an oncology company pioneering soluble bispecific TCR-based
therapies, with a £16.5 million Series A financing commitment, and
will have a 60.9[2] per cent stake in the business
·
Showcases the breadth of
Syncona's investment pipeline, from creation to clinical
stage
Syncona Ltd, a leading life science
investor focused on creating, building and scaling global leaders
in life science, announces that it has added two new companies to
its portfolio, iOnctura and Yellowstone Biosciences
("Yellowstone"). Syncona has invested €30 million (£25.7 million)
in iOnctura, an innovative, clinical-stage, small molecule company
combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers, and launched
Yellowstone, a new oncology company pioneering soluble bispecific
T-cell receptor (TCR)-based therapies, with a £16.5 million
commitment.
iOnctura
iOnctura is a European,
clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company developing selective
cancer therapeutics against targets that play critical roles in
multiple tumour survival pathways. Syncona invested €30 million
(£25.7 million) as part of a €80 million (£68.4 million) Series B
financing, which was led by Syncona and included existing investors
Merck Ventures, Inkef Capital, Schroders Capital, VI Partners and
the 3B Future Health Fund, as well as new investor the European
Innovation Council. Syncona will have a 23.0 per cent stake in the
business.
iOnctura's lead candidate,
roginolisib, is a first-in-class allosteric
(indirect) modulator of PI3K delta (PI3Kδ), which has potential
application across a variety of solid tumour and haematological
cancers. PI3Ks are enzymes that help to control growth in cells and
are commonly involved in cancer. The biopharma industry has long
tried to harness this mechanism for the treatment of cancer but
previous generations of PI3K inhibitors have often targeted many
PI3K sub-types and, as a result, have high toxicity. Roginolisib is
highly differentiated as the first allosteric modulator of PI3Kδ,
affording high selectivity and specific targeting of only the delta
isoform. Roginolisib has the potential to become the first
successful, clinically meaningful therapy to target this critical
cancer mechanism.
Roginolisib demonstrated long-term
safety and emerging efficacy in a Phase Ib clinical trial for
metastatic uveal melanoma (UM), a rare cancer of the eye where
patients have very limited treatment options. In CY2024 iOnctura
expects to initiate randomised Phase II trials in UM, and other
cancer indications including non-small cell lung cancer and primary
myelofibrosis. Syncona is working with the company to explore the
breadth of roginolisib's potential utility. iOnctura is led by a
highly accomplished management team including founder and Chief
Executive Officer Catherine Pickering, with Syncona Investment Management Limited (SIML)
Managing Partner and Head of Investments, Roel
Bulthuis, plus Investment Partner Alice Renard joining the Board as
Directors.
Yellowstone
Yellowstone is a new biologics company pioneering soluble
bispecific TCR-based therapies to unlock a new class of cancer
therapeutics. Syncona has launched the company with a £16.5 million
Series A commitment and will hold a 60.9 per cent stake in the
business. Through privileged access to a biobank of adult acute
myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients that underwent allogeneic blood
cell transplantation, Yellowstone has been able to identify a
proprietary set of frequently expressed peptide antigens that
represent novel biological targets to treat cancer. By targeting
these specific, frequently expressed antigens, the TCR-based
therapies Yellowstone will now develop have the potential to
selectively kill cancer cells and, in doing so, change the
treatment landscape for patients with AML and beyond, across a
range of cancers.
Yellowstone has been spun out from
the University of Oxford with the support of Oxford University
Innovation (OUI) and is built around the pioneering work of
renowned academic clinician, Prof. Paresh Vyas, who joins the
company as Chief Scientific Officer alongside an industry-leading
team. Neil Johnston also joins as Executive Chair, having spent 17
years at Novartis, most recently as Global Head of Business
Development and Licensing. Syncona will be represented on the Board
of Yellowstone by SIML Chief Executive Officer Chris Hollowood and
Investment Partner Gonzalo Garcia.
Chris Hollowood, CEO of Syncona
Investment Management Limited, said: "These new portfolio additions
showcase the breadth of Syncona's investment pipeline, which
focuses on company creation around highly innovative early-stage
scientific research, and investment in companies with emerging
clinical data developing transformational medicines. Yellowstone
represents an opportunity to create and build a company from
nascent but exciting science, whilst iOnctura is a significant
opportunity to invest in a company which is already delivering
differentiated clinical data.
Our focus is on differentiated assets that have
significant potential to deliver
transformational treatments to patients and in settings where an
autonomous biotech company can be scaled to deliver products to
approval. These investments underline the
continued strength of Syncona's network and model, as we look to
deliver against our strategy and growth targets."
Roel Bulthuis, Managing Partner and
Head of Investments at Syncona Investment Management Limited and
Board member of iOnctura, added: "iOnctura
represents a compelling opportunity to invest in line with our
strategy and capital allocation focus in a clinical-stage company,
and take a promising lead programme through to late-stage
development. To date, no company has been able to successfully
target this well-known cancer pathway with sufficient precision. By
allosterically modulating PI3Kδ, iOnctura
has achieved a new level of precision and could be the first
company to develop a clinically meaningful medicine targeting this
pathway. Its programmes have potential utility across a range of
cancers, which we are supporting the company to unlock through a
refined clinical strategy."
Catherine Pickering, Chief Executive
Officer of iOnctura, said: "This financing
is validation of iOnctura's approach to developing precision cancer
treatments with maximum clinical impact. These therapies have the
potential to significantly prolong the healthspan of patients
suffering with neglected cancer types, such as uveal melanoma. We
are pleased to welcome our new investors Syncona and the EIC Fund
alongside our existing strong syndicate. Their experience will be
invaluable as we look to advance our pipeline and take iOnctura to
its next stage of growth."
Professor Paresh Vyas, Co-founder
and Chief Scientific Officer of Yellowstone, said:
"Frequently expressed antigens that can be
targeted therapeutically are notoriously difficult to find but,
through two decades of research, we have identified a new class of
targets that have potential to treat cancer and extend patient
lives. We believe that our technology has the potential to
selectively kill tumour cells, whilst sparing healthy cells, in a
range of cancers. The strategy that we have built alongside
Syncona, will initially focus on developing highly selective
TCR-based therapies for AML, where we have formidable experience
and data. Beyond that, we are committed to broadening our pipeline
to other cancer settings to maximise Yellowstone's
potential."
[ENDS]
Enquiries
Syncona Ltd
Natalie Garland-Collins / Fergus
Witt
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7940
FTI Consulting
Ben Atwell / Tim Stamper
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727
1000
About Syncona
Syncona's purpose is to invest to
extend and enhance human life. We do this by creating, building and
scaling companies to deliver transformational treatments to
patients in areas of high unmet need.
We aim to build and maintain a
diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading life science
businesses, across development stage, modality and therapeutic
area, for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on
developing treatments that deliver patient impact by working in
close partnership with world-class academic founders and
experienced management teams. Our balance sheet underpins our
strategy, enabling us to take a long-term view as we look to
improve the lives of patients with no or poor treatment options,
build sustainable life science companies and deliver strong
risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.
Syncona Limited seeks to
achieve returns over the long term. Investors should seek to ensure
they understand the risks and opportunities of an investment
in Syncona Limited, including the information in our published
documentation, before investing.
About iOnctura
iOnctura is a clinical-stage
biopharmaceutical company combating neglected and hard-to-treat
cancers with precision oral small molecules that target cancers in
novel ways. The bold new treatments extend lives and improve
healthspans, changing the outlook for patients and their families.
Two therapeutic candidates have progressed into mid-stage clinical
development: roginolisib is the first allosteric modulator of PI3Kδ
and cambritaxestat is the only autotaxin inhibitor in clinical
development to treat cancer. iOnctura BV is headquartered in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands with its wholly owned Swiss subsidiary,
iOnctura SA, located in Geneva, Switzerland. iOnctura is backed by
specialist institutional investors including Syncona, EIC Fund, M
Ventures, Inkef Capital, VI Partners and Schroders
Capital.
For more information please
visit: http://www.ionctura.com/
About Yellowstone
Yellowstone is a biotechnology
company working to create highly selective targeted therapies for
cancer. The company aims to unlock a new class of therapeutically
targetable, frequently expressed antigens with the
potential to significantly transform patient
lives. Yellowstone utilises its proprietary access to a unique
biobank of tissue samples from acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)
patients to engineer T-cell receptor (TCR)-based bispecific T-cell
engagers for a range of incurable cancers. Leveraging its
world-class protein engineering capabilities and
proprietary access to the biobank, Yellowstone is advancing its
lead programme in AML, with pipeline potential across a range of
other cancers exhibiting human leukocyte antigen (HLA) Class II
expression. It is headquartered in Oxford, UK,
with backing from leading FTSE 250 healthcare company
Syncona.
For more information please
visit: www.yellowstonebio.com