Portfolio

Building a diversified portfolio of 20-25 companies

A portfolio of life science companies diversified across a range of therapeutic areas and different stages of the development cycle.

Portfolio in numbers

Unless stated all financials at 30 June 2023

£629m

Value of life sciences portfolio

13

High quality companies

14

Clinical trials in portfolio

10-year targets

20-25

Portfolio of leading life science companies

3

New companies founded per year

3-5

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.

Cell therapy is the introduction of selected, and sometimes engineered, cells into a patient, harnessing the power of a patient’s immune system to combat their disease. The therapy may have wide applications as a cancer treatment, with the potential for cure in some patients.

Cell therapy companies

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.

Cell type
CAR-T
Stage
Late clinical

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.

Cell type
TILs
Stage
Clinical

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.

Cell type
T-Reg
Stage
Clinical

Resolution Therapeutics

Resolution is developing macrophage cell therapies to repair inflammatory organ damage.

Cell type
Macrophage
Stage
Pre-clinical

Clade Therapeutics

Clade has been established with the aim of discovering and delivering scalable next generation induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived medicines.

Stage
Pre-Clinical

Gene therapy is the introduction of genetic material into cells to replace missing or defective genes. If a gene doesn’t function properly, the introduction of a normal copy of a gene may be able to treat or prevent disease. It is a technique that has the potential to deliver long-term and potentially curative benefits to patients with genetic disorders.

Gene Therapy companies

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.

Freeline Therapeutics

Freeline is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing transformative gene therapies for patients suffering from inherited systemic debilitating diseases.

Target tissue compartment
Systemic
Stage
Clinical

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.

Target tissue compartment
CNS
Stage
Clinical

Purespring Therapeutics

Purespring seeks to advance gene therapies for the treatment of chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments.

Target tissue compartment
Renal
Stage
Pre-clinical

Based on proteins which have a therapeutic effect. Biologics are complex, large molecule drugs.

Biologics companies

Anaveon

Anaveon is a clinical phase biopharmaceutical company that specialises in the development of treatments for diseases with immune system dysfunction.

Focus
Immune system dysfunction
Modality
Biologics

A small molecule is a small, chemically manufactured compound with a low molecular weight. Small molecule drugs help regulate a biological target such as an enzyme, channel or receptor to modify a disease process.

Small molecule companies

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
Stage
Pre-clinical

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 million alongside Cambridge Innovation Capital.

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 £20 million Series A financing in the company in 2022, committing £16 million alongside Oxford Science Enterprises.

Focus
Protein homeostasis
Stage
Pre-clinical

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.