Syncona Share Discussion Threads

[davemac3] 04/3/2019 07:07

Nightstar sold to Biogen

[luxaeterna1] 27/2/2019 13:58

Interesting, Spark Therapeutics sold for $5bn, with mixed trial results on their technology. On the patients so far it seems that Freeline had better efficacy and no serious side effects. Freeline achieved 48% and 66% efficacy rates in their patients.



Spark Therapeutics says its experimental treatment for hemophilia A reduced bleeds and the need for therapeutic infusions by 97 percent in a trial of 12 patients.
The treatment didn't work in two patients and sent one of them to the hospital.

At the highest dose in the study, which the company plans to use in its phase 3 trial, five of seven patients saw levels of the protein important in hemophilia A restored to an average of 30 percent of normal, the company said when it reported second-quarter financial results.

[brexitplus] 26/2/2019 08:10

Syncona leads CHF 35 million Series A financing in Anaveon, a new Immuno-oncology company

Syncona Ltd ("Syncona") announces a CHF 28 million (£21.4 million) commitment to Anaveon, a new immuno-oncology company, in a CHF 35 million (£26.8 million) Series A financing alongside the Novartis Venture Fund. Syncona will have a 47.0 per cent stake in the business.

The financing supports the development of a selective Interleukin 2 ("IL-2") Receptor Agonist. Syncona Chief Executive, Martin Murphy, Syncona Partner, Dominic Schmidt and Florian Muellershausen from Novartis Venture Fund have joined Anaveon's Board of Directors with Alice Renard, a Syncona Partner, to be an Observer.

Anaveon was founded in December 2017 by leading experts in the field of immunotherapy, Onur Boyman, Professor and Chair in the Department of Immunology at the University of Zurich and a recognised IL-2 biology expert, and Andreas Katopodis, previously Director at the Autoimmunity, Transplantation & Inflammation Group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. Anaveon was founded with initial seed capital from the UZH Life Sciences Fund which will convert in the Series A financing and additional funding from BaseLaunch, a healthcare accelerator operated by BaselArea.swiss.

The Company is developing a selective IL-2 Receptor Agonist, a type of protein that could therapeutically enhance a patient's immune system to respond to tumours. In the body, human IL-2 stimulates a type of immune cell, called a T-cell, to multiply and become activated. Under certain situations, T-cells are able to attack tumours and, consistent with this, human IL-2 is already approved as a medicine for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cancer.

Human IL-2 has certain drawbacks, it can be toxic and has a short half-life requiring repeat dosing. Anaveon's product is designed to address these challenges. This type of drug, if approved, could potentially have a wide utility in oncology, including in: cell therapies, vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors and in combination with radiotherapy.

Anaveon is Syncona's tenth life science company following the Company's investment in OMass Therapeutics in August 2018.

Andreas Katopodis, Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Anaveon, said: "Based on the pioneering work of Onur Boyman, who was the first to demonstrate re-direction of IL-2 activity in vivo, Anaveon has developed biologic approaches for the highly selective expansion of anti-tumour immune cells. Our compounds act as adjuvants to increase anti-tumour immune responses. Pre-clinical evidence shows they have marked efficacy in a variety of tumour models either as mono- or as combination therapy. We are very excited to partner with two leading life science supporters to bring our compounds into the clinic and demonstrate benefit to patients."

Martin Murphy, Chief Executive of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: "Our commitment to Anaveon is a great example of our strategy to build truly innovative companies anchored by exceptional science and experienced teams. Anaveon has a strong strategic fit across Syncona's cell therapy portfolio and we are excited by the potential to develop a best-in-class product in the IL-2 space. The Syncona team will work in close partnership with the company's world-leading founders to develop its business plan and clinical pathway."

Anja Koenig, Global Head of the Novartis Venture Fund and a board member at the UZH Life Science Fund, commented: "Such a strong Series A financing, by an international syndicate, of a company spun out of the University of Zurich was for me personally a great validation of the principles behind the UZH spinout fund to support Swiss innovation."

[ltinvestor] 26/2/2019 07:35

Yet another potentially exciting investment by Syncona .Their stable of cutting edge investments continues to grow.

[ltinvestor] 25/2/2019 15:31

Roche have today bid $5bn for Spark therapeutics, a gene therapy company hoping to be able to cure haemophilia and blindness.Syncona are invested in several gene therapy companies making good progress.....Big pharma are monitoring this new field of therapy very closely and I wouldn’t be surprised to see bids coming in for Nightstar or Autolus on positive news.

[luxaeterna1] 19/2/2019 12:24

Sure. I just noticed Syncona issued another e-mail updating on the AUTO1 trial

"No severe cytokine release syndrome (Grade 3-5). 86% molecular complete response rate after a single dose of AUTO1". "Overall survival (OS) was 84%"

hxxps://autolus.gcs-web.com/node/6831/pdf

[alan@bj] 19/2/2019 12:14

It's a treatment for cancer. Best you Google it really.

[luxaeterna1] 19/2/2019 11:41

They do work at pace these guys.

The two new companies haven't been announced, it appears that the new corporate presentation does hint somewhat at their field:

-Collaboration Option on research venture at UK university in new area of cell therapy
-New area of cell therapy

I'm not 100% clued up on what 'cell therapy' means, is that stem cell therapy?

[brexitplus] 19/2/2019 09:53

Syncona Ltd, a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding global leaders in life science, announces that its portfolio company, Gyroscope Therapeutics (Gyroscope), an ophthalmology company developing genetically defined therapies for retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), has commenced dosing in a Phase I/II trial in dry AMD.
Gyroscope was founded to explore the convergence of several recent advancements made in the understanding of eye disease, particularly the impact of the complement system, the genetic basis of AMD, and gene therapy as a mode of treatment delivery. The first patient in the trial was successfully dosed in January. The procedure was carried out at the John Radcliffe Hospital by Prof. Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, with the support of the National Institute of Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

Chris Hollowood, Chief Investment Officer of Syncona and Chairman of Gyroscope, said: “The evolution of Gyroscope into a clinical stage company is a great milestone and an example of Syncona’s expertise in harnessing ‘Third Wave’ technologies to develop therapies for serious diseases. Gene therapies are at the forefront of a new generation of treatments for retinal diseases and we are excited by the potential of Gyroscope’s novel approach to address one of the world’s biggest causes of blindness.”

Soraya Bekkali, Chief Executive of Gyroscope Therapeutics, said: “Our goal, at Gyroscope, is to advance new genetically defined therapies for the treatment of debilitating eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration. We are very pleased that the first patient has been treated in this trial and believe this is a great step forward in developing a therapy to treat Dry AMD, a complex disease for which there are no current available therapies.”

[tiger blue] 19/2/2019 07:44

News re Gyroscope Therapeutics (Syncona company) working on AMD, articles also in Daily Mail and Telegraph. Early days but potentially very interesting.

[luxaeterna1] 13/2/2019 13:27

New company presentation uploaded on Friday 8th Feb

hxxps://www.synconaltd.com/investors/document-library/

[sev22] 13/2/2019 12:10

uk.webfg.com/news/news-and-announcements/syncona-close-to-injecting-funds-in-new-prospects--3740537.html

[alan@bj] 13/2/2019 10:24

Achilles Therapeutics receives CTA Approval for Phase I/II Study in Metastatic or Recurrent Melanoma
Achilles Therapeutics (“AchillesR21;), a biopharmaceutical company developing personalised cancer immunotherapies, today announces the approval by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of its Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to conduct a Phase I/II study using clonal neoantigen targeting T cells (cNeT) in patients with metastatic or recurrent melanoma. The study is expected to enrol the first patient later in 2019.

“To have received our second CTA approval in as many weeks is highly encouraging,” said Dr Iraj Ali, CEO of Achilles Therapeutics. “We look forward to bringing this potentially transformative treatment option into the clinic later this year.”

[sev22] 08/2/2019 07:56

It says under the Investors section on Syncona's website that they are issuing a Quarterly Statement next Wednesday the 13th of February. Hopefully this will help push the share price back to £3.00 plus.

[luxaeterna1] 04/2/2019 13:37

Fair play, it seems that Freeline have a variety of clinical treatments coming through the pipeline. That is 5 genetic disorders targeted now.

Since their main area is creating an AAV capsid that 'infects' the liver to force the production of key vital enzymes, it will be interesting to watch how many genetic diseases are targeted by Freeline, there are literally thousands of conditions that could be targeted.

An interesting company to watch and attempt a valuation - in 5-8 years it could be a medium-sized pharma by itself.

[brexitplus] 04/2/2019 08:44

From Syncona

“Freeline, a biotechnology company focused on developing curative gene therapy for chronic systemic diseases, today announces a new program for Gaucher Disease, an inherited metabolic disorder characterized by the progressive build-up of glucocerebroside in lysosomes throughout the body. Freeline is targeting Type 1 Gaucher Disease, the most common and non-neuronopathic form of the disease.”

[luxaeterna1] 31/1/2019 12:38

Share price is a bit perky the last few days..good to see. Been some ok PR recently and the Autolus/BED rollout seems to be going well.

With BED having annual sales of ~ £70mpa a while ago, profitable and growing quickly, I wonder if we could say that £200mpa sales is perhaps 18 months away?

[rambutan2] 21/1/2019 18:59

Re above, a reminder:

[brexitplus] 21/1/2019 08:55

Achilles Therapeutics (“AchillesR21;”), a biopharmaceutical company developing personalised cancer immunotherapies, today announces that its Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to conduct a Phase I/II study with its lead product, a tumour-derived T cell therapy targeting clonal neoantigens, in development for the treatment of advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC), has been approved by the UK regulatory authority, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The study, an open-label, multi-centre Phase I/II trial evaluating the safety and clinical activity of clonal neoantigen T cells (cNeT) in patients with advanced NSCLC, is expected to enrol the first patient in 2H 2019.
“Approval of our first CTA represents an important validation of our approach and a significant milestone for Achilles,” said Dr Iraj Ali, CEO of Achilles Therapeutics. “Achilles was founded by world-leading experts in cancer evolution, bioinformatics and the delivery of cell-based immunotherapies and we are bringing together these disciplines to develop next-generation, patient-specific T cell therapies that harness the immune system to destroy cancer cells."

“The Achilles approach is a technological step forward in the immune-oncology space with the potential to bring the next wave of revolutionary new immunotherapies to cancer patients,” said Dr Martin Forster, Chief Investigator for the study at University College London Hospitals (UCLH), the lead clinical site. “We are excited to be part of the study and look forward to enrolling patients into the clinical trial.”

Achilles is developing personalised T cell therapies for solid tumours targeting clonal neoantigens: protein markers unique to each patient that are present on the surface of a cancer cell. Using its PELEUS™ bioinformatics platform, Achilles can identify clonal neoantigens from each patient’s unique tumour profile which are present on every cancer cell and can be recognised by the immune system. Achilles uses its proprietary process to manufacture clonal neoantigen T cells (cNeT) which exquisitely target the specific set of clonal neoantigens in each patient. The starting material for cNeT are tumour infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) which are isolated from the patient’s own tumour sample. These T cells are already programmed to invade and attack the tumour, and previous clinical studies have shown that expanded TILs can debulk solid tumours with durable and potent responses. Targeting multiple clonal neoantigens that are present on all cancer cells, but not on healthy cells, reduces the risk that new mutations can induce immune evasion and therapeutic resistance, and allows individualised treatments to target and destroy tumours without harming healthy tissue.

A second clinical study in patients with metastatic or recurrent melanoma is anticipated to open later in 2019.

[luxaeterna1] 17/1/2019 11:16

Hi Tiger, yes I think you have some valid points there, generally speaking Goldman do help some companies during high-growth periods. It seems that Autolus in particular is ramping up quickly now, they seem very confident and spent a lot of money on this new facility for ~5000patients per year, if the technology pipeline works well for Autolus, I would hope they'll need multiple new factories by the 2023 timeline to supply market demand.

[alan@bj] 16/1/2019 21:16

Return of the Troll

[thefartingcommie] 16/1/2019 20:08

thefartingcommie
10 Oct '18 - 13:59 - 180 of 226 Edit
0 0 0


1) How many listed investment trusts on the London market only report the relevant NAV on a quarterly basis?

2) How many investments trusts on the London market are trading at a quoted 40% premium to last published NAV?

There you go...should'nt be to difficult for you,no words of more than 3 syllables..so you should be able to understand.(says he hopefully;)...0
alan@bj
10 Oct '18 - 15:34 - 181 of 226
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Look it up yourself Fart. Why should I do the work for you?
thefartingcommie
11 Oct '18 - 08:45 - 182 of 226 Edit
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lol..not a question of 'doing the work for me'...that was a semi rhetorical question...clearly I know the answer to both.



I posed those to you in response to your previous comment regarding 'it depends on an individual's perception of the balance of risk and reward.'......

indeed.............

[tiger blue] 16/1/2019 18:58

With respect,I think either scenario is unlikely at present, as they do have significant liquidity they can access from the funds side. I suspect this is more to do with upping the profile in the US, where Numis have little clout and Goldman Sachs are the biggest name you can get. Makes sense with their two biggest quoted investments, Autolus and Nightstar, both quoted on NASDAQ. The recent Autolus announcement regarding building a full scale manufacturing facility is a huge statement of confidence in their trials, let's hope that pans out! I should declare a large interest here, having held since BACIT launch, though it has of course turned into a very different animal since then.

[alan@bj] 16/1/2019 17:06

Thanks luxaeterna1.

[luxaeterna1] 16/1/2019 16:54

Goldman Sachs appointed broker? Either means massive expansion or equity investment for some reason. I thought they had plenty of cash, as they already have plenty of funds with dividends coming in. Not billions, but several hundred million.