Syncona founds Purespring Therapeutics with a £45.0 million Series A financing commitment. Syncona will have an 84% stake in the business.
Purespring Therapeutics is one of the first AAV gene therapy companies focused on the kidney. It has been founded around the work of Professor Moin Saleem, Professor of Paediatric Renal Medicine at the University of Bristol, where he heads a world-leading group researching glomerular (a network of small blood vessels that help filter blood in the kidney) diseases. Purespring will seek to advance gene therapies for the treatment of chronic renal diseases that are currently poorly addressed with existing treatments.
The company will also establish an in-vivo functional screening platform, FunSel, to initially screen for protective factors that could have applications across several kidney diseases. FunSel has been developed by Professor Mauro Giacca, a leader in gene therapy of cardiovascular disorders, and provides Purespring with a target discovery platform uniquely suited to systematically move gene therapy beyond monogenic disorders.
Syncona’s £45.0m commitment should enable Purespring to progress to clinical stage. Syncona’s chief investment officer, Chris Hollowood, has been appointed as its chairman and Syncona partner Dominic Schmidt will be joining its board of directors. The Syncona team will work closely with Purespring as it builds out its operations and management team.
Initially, Purespring will draw down £3.9m of the £45m and Syncona will value this at cost for the time being.
Professor Moin Saleem, head of Bristol Renal, said: “This is an incredible opportunity to develop transformational treatments for kidney disease. Gene therapy has come of age in certain areas, but a major challenge in complex solid organs is to precisely target the genetic material to the correct cell type. Using accumulated expertise in the Bristol Renal research group we have solved this crucial hurdle, putting us in a position to deliver curative gene therapy to patients with chronic and intractable kidney diseases. Syncona have had the foresight to see this potential and partnering with their world-leading gene therapy experience is the best possible springboard to successfully bring this technology to patients.”
Professor Mauro Giacca, professor at King’s College London and the University of Trieste and former director-general of ICGEB, said: “I am very excited to take part in this brilliant new initiative. Not only do AAV vectors hold tremendous promise for the genetic therapy of kidney hereditary disorders but they are also unique tools for the discovery of new therapeutics for common degenerative conditions.”
Azeria write off
Separately, Syncona says that it has closed down Azeria Therapeutics, resulting in a £4.5m write off. Pre-clinical data generated by the company and reviewed by the Azeria management team and Syncona did not support further investment. In Syncona’s half-year results, gains on Freeline and others offset this, resulting in an increase in NAV from 185.6p at 31 March to 203.4p at end September.
SYNC : Syncona founds Purespring
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