Syncona Share News (SYNC)

(Sharecast News) - Syncona announced a new $51m (?41.39m) commitment in an expanded $77m series A round of financing by SwanBio Therapeutics on Thursday.
The FTSE 250 healthcare investor said the new commitment took its total commitment to the business to $74m, having invested a further $19.6m, with the holding valued at cost at ?34.3m.

It said the expanded series A financing would enable SwanBio to continue to develop a scalable manufacturing process for commercial supply, progress its lead programme, build out a pipeline of indications and expand its leadership team.

Syncona described SwanBio as a gene therapy company focussed on neurological disorders.

Its lead programme was targeting the treatment of adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN) - a genetic neuro-degenerative disease affecting the spine.

That disease impacted between 10,000 and 20,000 patients in the United States and European Union, and there were currently no approved treatments.

The business had made "strong progress" in the preclinical development of its lead programme, and the build out of a commercial manufacturing platform.

In partnership with Syncona, it had also undertaken an extensive exercise to identify unmet clinical needs where SwanBio was well placed to develop pipeline programmes.

Syncona has a 78.6% fully-diluted ownership stake at the point full current commitments were invested.

"In the last seven years, Syncona has developed a leading platform of gene therapy companies, each of which is built around world-class academics, a cornerstone programme addressing a high medical need and a commercial manufacturing and delivery platform that is then leveraged to a differentiated and synergistic pipeline of products," said Syncona chief investment officer and SwanBio chair Chris Hollowood.

"SwanBio is a fantastic example of this strategy in action.

"This financing, which is Syncona's largest Series A to date, demonstrates our belief that we have a differentiated opportunity to build a world-class company, targeting neuro-degenerative diseases where there are no current treatments available."

Tom Anderson, chief executive officer and director of SwanBio Therapeutics, added that the company was pleased to have the confidence and support of both Syncona and the Partners Innovation Fund, in achieving a "focussed multi-programme platform" in neurological diseases.

"We continue to seek and develop gene therapies in neurological diseases where there is significant unmet need and where our science can make a difference in the lives of patients and their families."

At 0853 BST, shares in Syncona were down 0.49% at 204p.