A portfolio of life science companies diversified across different stages of the development cycle and a range of therapeutic areas.
Portfolio in numbers
Unless stated all financials at 31 December 2023
Value of life sciences portfolio
High quality companies
Clinical trials in portfolio
10-year targets
Portfolio of leading life science companies
New companies founded per year
Companies to late-stage development
A diversified portfolio
To deliver sustainable value we seek to build a portfolio of 20-25 companies, with each company built on a product-focused strategy. Over portfolio is diversified across therapeutic areas and different stages of the development cycle.
Syncona’s late-stage clinical companies have advanced past Phase II clinical trials and are primed with a number of near-term value drivers.
Autolus Therapeutics
Autolus is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development of precisely targeted, controlled and highly active T effector cell therapies that are designed to offer cancer patients substantial benefits over existing standard of care.
- Focus
- CAR-T
- Modality
- Cell therapy
Beacon Therapeutics
Beacon is a leading ophthalmic gene therapy company with a purpose to restore and improve the vision of patients with a range of prevalent and rare retinal diseases that result in blindness. Syncona launched Beacon in June 2023, having invested £75 million of the £96 million Series A financing. As part of this Series A financing, AGTC was combined with new Syncona company, Beacon Therapeutics, merging AGTC’s lead clinical gene therapy asset with two exciting pre-clinical programmes, including one from the University of Oxford.
- Focus
- AAV-based gene therapies
- Modality
- Gene therapy
Syncona’s clinical companies have screened and enrolled the first patient into a clinical trial and are scaling towards late-stage development.
Achilles Therapeutics
Achilles Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer immunotherapies targeting clonal neoantigens: protein markers unique to each individual that are expressed on the surface of every cancer cell.
- Focus
- TILs
- Modality
- Cell therapy
SwanBio Therapeutics
SwanBio Therapeutics is a gene therapy company developing leading-edge medicines to deliver dramatic clinical efficacy for the treatment of genetically defined neurological conditions.
- Focus
- CNS
- Modality
- Gene therapy
Freeline Therapeutics
Freeline is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing transformative gene therapies for patients suffering from inherited systemic debilitating diseases.
- Focus
- Systemic
- Modality
- Gene therapy
Quell Therapeutics
Quell Therapeutics was founded with the aim of developing engineered T regulatory (Treg) cell therapies. Tregs are a subset of T cells with the potential to downregulate the immune system.
- Focus
- T-Reg
- Modality
- Cell therapy
Syncona’s pre-clinical portfolio companies are developing their pipelines, proprietary platforms and progressing towards entering clinical trials.
Anaveon
Anaveon is a pre-clinical phase biopharmaceutical company that specialises in the development of treatments for diseases with immune system dysfunction.
- Focus
- Immune system dysfunction
- Modality
- Biologics
Resolution Therapeutics
Resolution is developing macrophage cell therapies to repair inflammatory organ damage.
- Focus
- Macrophage
- Modality
- Cell therapy
Purespring Therapeutics
Purespring seeks to advance gene therapies for the treatment of chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments.
- Focus
- Renal
- Modality
- Gene therapy
OMass Therapeutics
OMass Therapeutics is an Oxford University spin-out backed by Syncona and Oxford Science Enterprises that is using novel biochemistry techniques, native mass spectrometry and custom chemistry to deliver novel medicines against highly validated but inadequately drugged targets, with a focus on immunological and rare diseases.
- Focus
- Native Mass Spectrometry
- Modality
- Small molecule
Mosaic Therapeutics
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. Syncona led a £22.5 million Series A financing of the company in 2022, committing £16.5 million alongside Cambridge Innovation Capital.
- Focus
- Oncology therapeutics
- Modality
- Small molecule
Kesmalea Therapeutics
Kesmalea is a small molecule drug discovery company established with the aim of creating a new generation of oral drugs addressing diseases through modulating protein homeostasis. Syncona led a £25 million Series A financing in the company in 2022, committing £20 million alongside Oxford Science Enterprises.
- Focus
- Protein homeostasis
- Modality
- Small molecule
Investing into best-in-class therapeutics companies
Forcefield Therapeutics
Forcefield is a pioneer of best-in-class therapeutics to protect heart function by arresting the loss of cardiomyocytes following myocardial infarction (heart attacks). Myocardial infarction (MI) triggers the irreversible loss of large numbers of cardiomyocytes, or heart cells, which can lead to a cascade of events leading to heart failure. Up to 30% of cardiomyocytes can be lost during and immediately after MI.
- Focus
- Cardioprotection
- Modality
- Biologics
As we seek to build a diversified portfolio of 20-25 companies, some companies may not succeed and we may receive attractive offers for our companies from third parties.
Gyroscope Therapeutics
Syncona founded Gyroscope in 2016, to explore the convergence of advancements made in the understanding of the complement system’s impact on eye disease, the genetic basis of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and gene therapy as a mode of sustained treatment delivery. Gyroscope’s gene therapy seeks to treat dry AMD by safely and effectively delivering a functioning gene to the eye using Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) technology.
Blue Earth
Blue Earth Diagnostics was founded to develop and commercialise molecular imaging agents, addressing areas of high unmet medical need.
Nightstar
Nightstar was a leading clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing and commercialising novel one-time treatments for patients suffering from rare inherited retinal diseases that would otherwise progress to blindness.
Neogene Therapeutics
Neogene was founded in 2018, based on the work of Dr Ton Schumacher, a leading cancer immunologist, and Dr Carsten Linnemann, who was previously associate director of next generation T cell therapy at Kite Pharma. In 2020 Syncona co-led the company’s $110 million Series A financing round, committing $19 million alongside EcoR1 Capital, Jeito Capital, Polaris Partners, Pontifax, Vida Ventures, TPG and Two River.
14MG
14M Genomics was a cancer diagnostic business that was founded in partnership with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in 2014.
Azeria Therapeutics
Azeria was a small molecule drug discovery company targeting treatment of oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Clade Therapeutics
Clade Therapeutics was founded in 2021 with the aim of discovering and delivering scalable next generation induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived medicines.
Attracting world-class talent within our portfolio
Introduction to Richard Francis, Chief Executive of Purespring Therapeutics
