Syncona Share Discussion Threads

[luxaeterna1] 06/10/2020 17:25

5 Autolus trials ongoing, 5+ more to start by end of 2021... cranking up a gear.

[brexitplus] 06/10/2020 15:29

I missed this in September

“Syncona makes two new investments – Resolution Therapeutics and Neogene Therapeutics

Resolution Therapeutics
Following a collaboration agreement with the University of Edinburgh in 2018, Resolution has been founded by Syncona as a cell therapy company investigating the use of macrophages for the treatment of patients with end stage liver disease. In pre-clinical studies, macrophages have been well-documented as key agents of wound and injury repair in the liver, amongst other organs, and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting their use as therapeutic agents to treat cirrhosis of the liver caused by chronic liver diseases. Liver disease is a major burden on society, with 1-2 million people diagnosed with compensated liver cirrhosis in the US and EU5 per year. Current treatments, including lifestyle changes in the first instance, do not actively repair the liver, relying on early diagnosis before the onset of cirrhosis to be effective. There is therefore a strong unmet need for a regenerative therapy for patients with end stage liver disease.

Syncona has founded Resolution with a £26.8m commitment to a Series A financing, investing an initial first tranche of £0.4m to fund the formation of the team and intellectual property (IP) required to commence operations. The investment follows an earlier seed investment in 2018 of £1.4m which funded discovery work in the laboratory of Professor Stuart Forbes, a leading figure in the field of macrophages and liver regeneration and Professor of Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Syncona’s holding value in Resolution is £1.8m and, at the point full current commitments are invested, the company will have a 79% stake in Resolution. Martin Murphy, chief executive of Syncona Investment Management Limited, and Ed Hodgkin, partner, have joined the Resolution board as non-executive directors.

Neogene Therapeutics
Syncona has co-led the $110.0m Series A financing round of Neogene, with a commitment of $19.0m (£14.8m) alongside specialist investors including EcoR1, Jeito Capital, Vida Ventures, Bellco Capital, Two River, and TPG, of which the first tranche of $15.2m (£11.9m) has been invested. The investment is valued at cost. Neogene was founded in 2019 around the work of world-class founders, Dr Ton Schumacher and Dr Carsten Linnemann, and is developing an engineered cell therapy product for solid tumours based on a patient’s own neoantigens. The Series A financing is intended to fund non-clinical validation of the company’s proprietary tumour-specific T-cell receptor gene isolation platform and a future Phase I study. Elisa Petris, partner of Syncona Investment Management Limited, has taken up the role of non-executive director on the Neogene board.”

[robow] 30/9/2020 15:17

I'm with you there acuere

[acuere] 30/9/2020 15:08

Been in these about 2/3 years now. Never can work out the catalyst for it going on a sustained fall or rise. With hindsight I could have built a decent stake by trading the peaks and troughs but Sod’s law says the time I sell at 260 plus it will go on a run to 300+ and never look back. Hopefully these rises will continue.

[greygrey] 23/9/2020 21:12

i agree that with all this good news why no action on SYNC. It just does not respond to anything at present.

[brexitplus] 23/9/2020 14:32

Freeline announces supply agreement for haemophilia B program
Freeline Therapeutics Holdings plc (Nasdaq: FRLN) (the “Company”; or “Freeline̶1;), a clinical stage, fully-integrated, next generation, systemic, AAV-based gene therapy company with the ambition of transforming the lives of patients suffering from inherited systemic debilitating diseases, today announces their supply agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (“Thermo Fisher”).

This agreement secures dedicated production capacity and resources for Freeline from 2021 to 2027, inclusive. This will provide capacity for the planned Phase 2b/3 pivotal clinical trial and potential commercialisation of Freeline’s haemophilia B program, FLT180a, using the Company’s proprietary manufacturing platform and processes.

[1seanshare] 22/9/2020 09:07

All this good news, why is SYNC so meh?

[brexitplus] 22/9/2020 08:29

Gyroscope Therapeutics Limited, a clinical-stage retinal gene therapy company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation to GT005 for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). GT005 is an investigational one-time AAV-based gene therapy that is delivered under the retina and is intended to slow the progression of GA that can lead to blindness.

[luxaeterna1] 09/9/2020 16:25

Ohhh, Autolus updated presentation with some nice new info on their website. Progress looks reasonable and getting numbers through the door now, 5 clinical trials now on the go on different cancer types.

[luxaeterna1] 07/9/2020 10:20

Hard to say, Autolus had some manufacturing challenges at the UK plant and had to modify the "open" to the "closed" process, that caused some inevitable delays & trial changes and definitely seemed to impact the price at the time. Since this time, the results have been publicly back on track.

I think it's a classic volatile share & it depends what timebase you use. I mean seriously, you can optimistically say the share price has tripled since March 2020, or say it is down 25% since July 2020. Both are accurate stats.

[greygrey] 05/9/2020 18:19

Does anyone know what AUTO has dropped. Is there bad news or just the market. SYNC also v low and no jump to the 285 level suggested a few weeks ago with the new NAV. AUTO presenting at ESMO this month which should give more info on progress.

[chessman2] 26/8/2020 12:43

Reading the Telegraph this morning I am assured that the future investment world belongs to pharmaceutical and Artificial Intelligence stocks. I happen to agree with them.

What better then, to grab a handful with SYNC

[luxaeterna1] 21/8/2020 22:05

It depends, Autolus is the major price driver here. It's fair to say many institutions have put a huge amount of money into Autolus. By 2022 they may have a saleable product - (was it adult ALL?). With the platform de-risked you can imagine how the MCAP will develop - but they do still have to demonstrate this, rather than just the theory. It seems like they will do it - but they do need to demonstrate volume and patient numbers in the Phase 3s.

After that, well Freeline is a crazy proposition. It is either worth nothing, or £30bn (IMO) and that is a really scary idea. How do you value that? I have no idea. The haemophilia trials seem to be going well - but is it commercial? Needs another 2 years to get a real feel where Freeline is going.

[greygrey] 13/8/2020 17:36

Thanks so much for the explanation. I am a little new to this but trying to learn. Problem was my online broker had not updated the NAV so I missed that. Pity it has not produced a price uplift as yet. As always we must be patient with this one though I do believe strongly in its long term potential.

[tiger blue] 13/8/2020 15:27

The nav to end June (210.7p) was announced in the quarterly update on 10th August, since when the Freeline IPO brought a further uplift.
The main bit of the IPO (8.8m shares) is done and dusted, the only bit outstanding is the option as is common in the US for the brokers to subscribe for up to a further 1.3m shares, and they have 30 days from 6th August. As this is also at $18, not much incentive for buyers to pay this with the price now a bit below, though they did trade over $21 on the first day so they may have drawn down a few more then.

[greygrey] 13/8/2020 15:07

Ok many thanks Tiger Blue. I had thought NAV was updated quarterly and last was March but I must be mistaken. Do you know when the Freeline IPO closes by the way.

[tiger blue] 13/8/2020 12:15

Thank you Greygrey. Having just given their quarterly update, Syncona won't issue another regular update on nav until the interim results to end Sept which last year came out on 21st November, so until then it's manual calculations based on the quoted stocks, exchange rates etc. The only exception would be where they do another funding round, when they will state the individual uplift (hopefully an uplift!) to their nav for the relevant company.

[greygrey] 13/8/2020 11:59

Very helpful analysis. Th NAV update seems long overdue - any idea when it will be made. Also I guess the Freeline IPO has closed? so there should be an announcement about that soon. The price seems very stuck despite lots of positive news.

[tiger blue] 13/8/2020 10:54

A few stats based on last night's close and the recent quarterly update:

I estimate current nav at just over 221p, with cash of 108.25p now outweighed by the life science portfolio at 113p.

As I forecast in February Freeline has now overtaken Autolus as the largest portfolio company, representing 37.6p per share vs Autolus 31.8p. Gyroscope and Achilles are both c 11p, and with the progress they are making and likely uplifts at future funding rounds the life sciences portfolio will become more diversified and inherently less risky when it is no longer dominated by one or two businesses. Swan Bio represents 5.2p and the CRT Pioneer Fund 6.3p, the remaining investments are c 10p per share. The quoted nav as usual looks understated, with so many investments still held at cost.

With further funding rounds and the expected new investment in the macrophage cell therapy opportunity, there should also be less negative broker comment on the 'cash drag', though imho a strong capital base is reassuring and helps me sleep sounder in these incredibly difficult times.

[brexitplus] 13/8/2020 08:04

Gyroscope Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Phase II Programme Evaluating its Investigational Gene Therapy, GT005, for Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration

[greygrey] 11/8/2020 15:07

This uplift seems very logical unless the premium to NAV reduces. I guess Freeline closes today although seems stuck at 16.50 ie below the 18 at which it was priced. I guess we’ll see in the next day or so.

[brexitplus] 10/8/2020 07:12

Excellent update today.

“Life science portfolio increases in value by 35% since year end:

-- Net assets of GBP1,414.9 million, 210.7 p per share, a NAV return of 13.5 per cent in the period

-- Life science portfolio valued at GBP677.0 million as at 30 June 2020, a return of 35.1 per cent in the period, with performance driven by the increase in the Autolus Therapeutics (Autolus) share price and the write-up of Freeline Therapeutics (Freeline) in its recent Series C financing

-- Capital base of GBP737.9 million as at 30 June 2020; GBP29.2 million of capital deployed in the quarter

Strong clinical progress with significant data generation and new programmes initiated.”

[greygrey] 07/8/2020 17:30

When are we due a new NAV?

[luxaeterna1] 07/8/2020 08:59

I am hopeful the resistance will shift up 15p, so the new upper resistance should be about 285p imminently.

[ltinvestor] 07/8/2020 07:37

Syncona most certainly deliver...