REG - Syncona Limited - Mosaic Therapeutics update

SynconaAnnouncement

24/04/2025 07:02

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RNS Number : 9113F  Syncona Limited  24 April 2025

24 April 2025

 

Syncona Limited

 

Mosaic Therapeutics in-licences two clinical-stage assets from Astex
Pharmaceuticals

 

In-licensing these clinical-stage assets has significantly de-risked and
accelerated Mosaic's development path; the compounds will be developed as
proprietary combination therapies

 

Syncona Ltd, ("Syncona") a leading life science investor focused on creating,
building and scaling global leaders in life science, today notes that its
portfolio company Mosaic Therapeutics ("Mosaic"), a targeted oncology
therapeutics company dedicated to resolving cancer's complexity with new
targeted combination therapies for patients, has announced the in-licensing of
two clinical-stage assets from Astex Pharmaceuticals ("Astex"), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

 

Under the agreement Mosaic gains the exclusive rights to develop two
well-understood, clinical-stage assets in proprietary combinations with other
targeted agents identified by their platform. The combination therapies will
target the treatment of selected cancer patients where novel biomarker defined
settings have also been identified by Mosaic's platform. The two assets both
have extensive clinical exposure, having been tested as monotherapies in over
100 patients, with demonstrably positive safety profiles supporting their
potential use as therapies in Mosaic's proprietary combinations. In-licensing
these clinical-stage assets has significantly de-risked and accelerated
Mosaic's development path, with the monotherapy clinical studies complete and
the first clinical study of its lead drug combination expected in 2026.

 

As part of the transaction, Astex will take an equity stake in Mosaic,
equating to a fully-diluted ownership stake of 19% equity upfront and a
further 3% dependent on clinical milestones. Syncona's holding value at 31
December 2024 was £15.0 million and on closure of the deal its fully-diluted
ownership stake equated to 54% 1  (#_ftn1) .

 

"Mosaic's mission is to bring novel targeted combination medicines to patients
who need them," said Dr. Edward Hodgkin, Managing Partner of Syncona
Investment Management Limited and Chair of Mosaic. "The in licensing of these
two clinical-stage assets provides a step change in our development pipeline,
allowing Mosaic to progress targeted drug combinations in novel
biomarker-defined settings and enabling the delivery of precision medicines
for patients who currently have few therapeutic options. Excitingly the deal
significantly accelerates Mosaic's development path, with the first clinical
combination study expected to commence in 2026."

 

The announcement can be accessed on Mosaic's website at
https://mosaic-tx.com/#news (https://mosaic-tx.com/#news) , with the full text
of the announcement from Mosaic also contained below.

 

 ENDS 

 

Enquiries

 

Syncona Ltd

 

Annabel Clark / Tim Stamper

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7912

 

FTI Consulting

 

Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000

 

About Syncona

 

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

We aim to build and maintain a diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading
life science businesses, across development stage, modality and therapeutic
area, for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on developing
treatments that deliver patient impact by working in close partnership with
world-class academic founders and experienced 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.

Syncona Limited seeks to achieve returns over the long term. Investors should
seek to ensure they understand the risks and opportunities of an investment in
Syncona Limited, including the information in our published documentation,
before investing.

 

 

 

Mosaic Therapeutics in-licenses two clinical-stage oncology programs from
Astex Pharmaceuticals for development as proprietary combination therapies

 

-     In-licensing transforms Mosaic from a research and platform company
to a clinical-stage oncology business

 

-     Mosaic will develop proprietary, targeted combination products,
supported by proprietary biomarkers, to realise the full potential of the
assets

 

-     As part of the agreement Astex has taken an equity stake in Mosaic

 

Cambridge, UK, 24 April 2025 - Mosaic Therapeutics, Ltd ('Mosaic', or 'the
Company') a targeted oncology therapeutics company dedicated to resolving
cancer's complexity with new combination therapies for patients, today
announces the in-licensing of two clinical-stage oncology programs from Astex
Pharmaceuticals ('Astex'), a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka Pharmaceutical
Co. Ltd. Mosaic has identified proprietary combinations incorporating the
licensed products and their targets and this agreement gives Mosaic the
exclusive rights to develop those combination products for patients for whom
there are no, or limited, treatment options.

As part of the agreement, Astex has taken an equity stake in Mosaic equating
to a fully-diluted ownership stake of 19% equity upfront and a further 3%
dependent on clinical milestones, which will consolidate the partnership
between these two innovation-driven businesses. Astex will also receive
potential future revenue shares. Dr. Harren Jhoti, co-founder, president and
chief executive officer of Astex, will also take an observer role on the
Mosaic Board. Other financial details have not been disclosed.

Mosaic's platform identifies combinations of pairs of oncology drugs predicted
to have synergistic activity in biomarker-defined patient populations and
expected to lead to greater efficacy and durability of response than achieved
as monotherapy. The development strategy for each combination product is to
seek a broad, biomarker-defined label across multiple tumour types. The two
small molecule assets from Astex are ASTX029, an ERK1/2 inhibitor discovered
by Astex that has completed a Phase 2 clinical study and ASTX295 an MDM2
antagonist discovered by Astex in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK
Drug Discovery Unit at Newcastle University, that has completed a Phase 1
clinical study. Each of the two licensed compounds has been studied in more
than 100 patients and demonstrated differentiated safety profiles within their
target class and single-agent activity as monotherapies, enabling use in
combination therapies.

 

"Mosaic's mission is to bring novel targeted combination medicines to patients
who need them," said Dr. Edward Hodgkin, Managing Partner of Syncona
Investment Management Limited and Chair of Mosaic. "The in licensing of these
two clinical-stage assets provides a step change in our development pipeline,
allowing Mosaic to progress targeted drug combinations in novel
biomarker-defined settings and enabling the delivery of precision medicines
for patients who currently have few therapeutic options. Excitingly the deal
significantly accelerates Mosaic's development path, with the first clinical
combination study expected to commence in 2026."

 

"We recognise the significance of Mosaic's platform, which has identified
these two assets as anchor components of a pipeline of potential combination
products," said Dr. Harren Jhoti, co-founder, president and chief executive
officer of Astex. "Both drug targets are well-characterised drivers of many
cancers, and we are excited to be working with the experienced team at Mosaic
to expand the Company's pipeline in combination therapies with high unmet
medical need."

ENDS

 

Notes for editors

 

About Mosaic Therapeutics (www.mosaic-tx.com)

Mosaic Therapeutics is an oncology therapeutics company using advanced
computational methods and next-generation cancer models to discover and
develop novel targeted combination medicines. The company's mission is to
tackle cancers with substantial unmet need and few targeted treatment options,
by reinventing the traditional approach to target and drug discovery to
identify novel biomarker-stratified medicines.

Born out of pioneering research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, in
collaboration with the Netherlands Cancer 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.

 

 

Contact

Magdalena Jonikas, CEO, Mosaic Therapeutics

E: info@mosaic-tx.com (mailto:info@mosaic-tx.com)

 

Media Contact

 

Zyme Communications Ltd

Katie Odgaard

E: katie.odgaard @zymecommunications.com (mailto:info@zymecommunications.com)

T: +44 (0)7787 502 947

 

 

 

 

 1  (#_ftnref1) Following the transaction a further £10.5 million was
invested in Mosaic.

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