Syncona expands portfolio with £22.5m Series A

RNS Number : 3265V

Syncona Limited

04 April 2023

 

Syncona Limited

Syncona expands portfolio with £22.5 million Series A financing of Mosaic Therapeutics

04 April 2023

·   Mosaic Therapeutics is an oncology therapeutics company focused on drug development against genetically informed targets, based on world-leading research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, in collaboration with the Netherlands Cancer Institute

·   Syncona leads £22.5 million Series A financing, committing £16.5 million alongside investment from Cambridge Innovation Capital

·     £7.3 million of the commitment has been invested by Syncona (equal to current holding value) [1] ; Syncona will have a 52.8% stake in the business once all current commitments are invested [2]

Syncona Ltd, a leading healthcare company focused on creating, building and scaling a portfolio of global leaders in life science, today announces that it has committed £16.5 million to new portfolio company Mosaic Therapeutics (Mosaic), leading a £22.5 million Series A financing, alongside Cambridge Innovation Capital. Syncona's holding value in Mosaic is £7.3 million following the investment of the first tranche of the Series A commitment and, at the point all current commitments are invested, Syncona will have a 52.8% stake in the business.

Based in Cambridge, UK, Mosaic is an oncology therapeutics company with a highly specialised drug discovery platform, focused on discovering, developing and commercialising novel, targeted, therapies to target cancers in areas of high unmet need. The company has a strong relationship with the Wellcome Sanger Institute, providing it with differentiated access to deep scientific expertise, infrastructure and biological assets.

Mosaic was founded by the Wellcome Sanger Institute in 2020 and is based on the work of Dr Mathew Garnett to develop a platform for tumour agnostic, targeted drug discovery. Mathew is Head of the Translational Cancer Genomics Laboratory at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and co-founded Mosaic alongside Dr Adrian Ibrahim, formerly Head of Technology Translation at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Dr Emile Voest, Chairman of the Board of Cancer Core Europe and Independent Director on the Board of Sanofi S.A.

Mosaic will be led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Brian Gladsden, a global leader in cancer therapeutics with 25 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals. He joins Mosaic after 15 years at Novartis Oncology, where most recently he was Senior Vice President and a member of the Worldwide Leadership Team, responsible for global commercialisation and strategy for the portfolio.

Following Brian's appointment as CEO, the financing will enable the company to focus on further building out its management team, its operations, and progressing its lead programmes through preclinical development to IND-enabling studies. Syncona Investment Management Limited CEO, Chris Hollowood, has been appointed as Chair and Lead Partner, Magdalena Jonikas, will be joining the Board of Directors.

Mosaic becomes Syncona's 13^th company in its current portfolio, with the Company having added three new companies over the last six months.

Magdalena Jonikas, Lead Partner at Syncona Investment Management Limited and Director of Mosaic, said : "The unprecedented insights provided by the genomic revolution have enabled more targeted drug development, with drug targets being de-risked by genetics or data. This approach to drug discovery is a focus for us at Syncona and Mosaic is a great example of a company built around this concept. The Mosaic platform enables the best targets for drug development to be identified, with an understanding of which individual patients will respond. With a differentiated strategy that can accelerate entry to the clinic, and the potential for application in a number of oncology settings in cancers which have previously been difficult to treat, we are excited for the potential of this platform. The opportunity for the company and most importantly, for patients, is significant. I am thrilled that Brian has joined Mosaic to lead the next stage of the company's growth and look forward to building this business in partnership with its world-class team."

Dr Mathew Garnett, co-founder of Mosaic Therapeutics, added : " Mosaic is ready to lead the next wave of treatments for cancer, through the discovery of effective targeted therapies in molecularly defined patients. Cancer is a complex disease and our platform, combining large-scale screening in advanced cancer models and cancer big data, gives Mosaic unprecedented clarity and insights.  With high calibre investors, an experienced CEO, and solid scientific foundations, we're building an exceptional team to deliver on our vision to develop safer and more effective medicines."

Brian Gladsden, Chief Executive Officer of Mosaic Therapeutics, said: "I believe that Mosaic is ideally positioned to resolve the complexity of cancer, to discover and develop targeted therapies that address areas of high unmet need. The people, platform, connection to a world-leading genomics research institute, and strong investor partnerships are truly best in class. To receive funding from such high calibre investors is testament to the potential of Mosaic's technology and multidisciplinary team, as well as the exceptional support provided by the Wellcome Sanger Institute."

[ENDS]

Copies of this press release and other corporate information can be found on the company website at: www.synconaltd.com

Forward-looking statements - this announcement contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the portfolio of investments of Syncona Limited. These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In particular, many companies in the Syncona Limited portfolio are conducting scientific research and clinical trials where the outcome is inherently uncertain and there is significant risk of negative results or adverse events arising. In addition, many companies in the Syncona Limited portfolio have yet to commercialise a product and their ability to do so may be affected by operational, commercial and other risks.

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About Syncona

Syncona's purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life. We do this by creating and building companies to deliver transformational treatments to patients in areas of high unmet need.

Our strategy is to create, build and scale companies around exceptional science to create a diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading healthcare businesses for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments for patients by working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and 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.

About Mosaic Therapeutics

Mosaic Therapeutics is an oncology therapeutics company using advanced computational methods and next-generation cancer models to discover and develop novel therapies. The company's main mission is to tackle cancers with substantial unmet need by reinventing the traditional approach to target and drug discovery.

Born out of pioneering research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and anchored around a proprietary platform that has seen 20 years of fine-tuning and development, Mosaic has active programmes across a variety of oncology indications and disease biology pathways.

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[1] Mosaic is held by Syncona at cost. The first £7.3 million tranche of the £16.5 million commitment was paid in October 2022

[2] The remaining commitment will be invested upon the delivery of key milestones

 

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