REG - Syncona Limited - Syncona expands portfolio with £22.5m Series A

SynconaAnnouncement

04/04/2023 12:15

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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 (http://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.

 

Enquiries

 

Syncona Ltd

 

Annabel Clark / Fergus Witt

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7940

 

FTI Consulting

 

Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins / Julia Bradshaw / Tim Stamper

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 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.

 

 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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