(Alliance News) - Syncona Ltd on Thursday reported a negative third quarter net asset value return, as well as a GBP25.3 million new commitment to Quell Therapeutics' expanded financing.
Syncona is a healthcare company that focuses on founding, building, and funding a portfolio of life science businesses. As at December 31, its net assets stood at GBP1.35 billion or 201.1 pence per share, giving a NAV return for the three months to that date of negative 1.1%.
More positively, it had a positive 8.3% NAV return for the nine months from March 31.
As at December end, Syncona's life science portfolio was valued at GBP735.9 million, giving a negative 1.7% total return for the quarter but a 22% return for the nine months.
At 2020 end, Syncona's capital base was GBP614.6 million, of which around 93% was in cash and cash equivalents with the rest in legacy funds.
In its third quarter, Syncona's deployed GP81.0 million of capital, deploying GBP149.9 million in the nine month period.
Martin Murphy, chief executive of Syncona Investment Management Ltd, said: "The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of continuous and rapid innovation in the life science sector. Our expert team, differentiated strategy and strong capital base means we are well positioned to build innovative companies that aim to leverage speed and flexibility in drug development. We believe we will have an important role in continuing to translate and commercialise innovation into products for patients over the long-term."
Furthermore, Syncona announced a further GBP25.3 million commitment to Quell's GBP61.0 million expanded series A financing, taking Syncona's total Quell commitment to GBP59.3 million. Once commitments are invested, Syncona will have a 74% stake in Quell.
Quell was established with the aim of developing an engineered T regulatory cell therapies. These types of T cells are found naturally in the body and potentially downregulate the immune system, which could help advance therapies to manage diseases such as "solid organ transplant rejection, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases".
The first Quell programme targets tolerance induction after liver transplantation. A clinical candidate has been nominated, set to enter the clinic in the first half of 2021.
Quell also has a partnership with Syncona to identify and prioritise two promising research programmes for the progressive disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, as well as type 1 diabetes.
This expanded financing will help Quell take its first programme to the clinic and progress its ALS and diabetes programmes, as well as enabling it to develop a scalable manufacturing process and expand senior leadership.
Murphy said: "Syncona has also worked in close partnership with Quell's leading management team to build out a pipeline of promising programmes which we believe could offer patients transformative therapies to resolve chronic diseases. This financing underscores our belief and excitement about Quell's potential to be a global leader in treating liver transplantation as well as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and we look forward to working closely with the company as it continues to scale."
Shares in Syncona were up 0.6% at 253.39 pence in London on Thursday morning.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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