Syncona’s Nightstar Therapeutics to be acquired for $877m – Syncona Limited founded Nightstar Therapeutics in 2013, with an original investment of £56.4m. Syncona’s holding of Nightstar at the time of sale was £254.6m, a £135.4m uplift previous valuation. This results in a 4.5x multiple on Syncona’s original investment and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 72%. Biogen Switzerland Holdings has agreed to purchase Nighstar for $877m or £663m. This amounts to a price of $25.50 per share.
Martin Murphy, the CEO of Syncona, commented, “In the six years since Syncona founded Nightstar, the company has established itself as one of the global leaders in retinal gene therapies. It is a strong example of our differentiated approach of founding, building and funding global leaders in life science and we look forward to seeing Nightstar work to deliver transformational treatments to patients during the next phase of its development with Biogen.”
Syncona’s company vision
“Syncona is a leading FTSE250 healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding global leaders in life science. Our vision is to deliver transformational treatments to patients in truly innovative areas of healthcare while generating superior returns for shareholders. We seek to partner with the best, brightest and most ambitious minds in science to build globally competitive businesses. We take a long-term view, underpinned by a deep pool of capital, and are established leaders in gene and cell therapy. We focus on delivering dramatic efficacy for patients in areas of high unmet need.”
About Nightstar Therapeutics
“Nightstar is a leading clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing and commercializing novel one-time treatments for patients suffering from rare inherited retinal diseases that would otherwise progress to blindness. NST’s lead product candidate, NSRREP1, is currently in Phase 3 development for the treatment of patients with choroideremia, a rare, degenerative, genetic retinal disorder that has no treatments currently available and affects approximately one in every 50,000 people.”
SYNC : Syncona’s Nightstar Therapeutics to be acquired for $877m