SynOx Therapeutics Ltd (SynOx), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, has closed a EUR37 million Series A financing co-led by HealthCap and Medicxi and joined by investors Forbion and Gimv. SynOx, a spin out of Celleron Therapeutics Ltd (Celleron), secured exclusive world-wide rights for the clinical development, manufacturing and commercialisation of emactuzumab under a licence agreement with Roche. The financing will enable SynOx to continue the development of emactuzumab, for the treatment of diffuse tenosynovial giant cell tumours (TGCT), also known as pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS), and other indications.
Emactuzumab is a clinical-stage humanised IgG1 CSF-1R targeted antibody designed to target and deplete macrophages in the tumour tissue. It has shown a favourable safety profile in patients and encouraging efficacy for TGCT, a rare disease characterised by the proliferation of macrophages in the synovial tissue in the joint and tendon sheath.
Professor Nick La Thangue, Chief Executive Officer of SynOx, says: “We are very excited to be developing emactuzumab as a breakthrough treatment for the extreme and debilitating effects of TGCT. SynOx will be focused on generating all necessary data to register this new therapy in a time- and cost-efficient way.”
Jacob Gunterberg, Partner at HealthCap, says: “With the objective to develop a new therapy for TGCT patients who suffer from a significantly reduced quality of life, the involvement in the establishment and investment in SynOx fits very well with our investment strategy.”
Francesco De Rubertis, Partner at Medicxi, says: “We are excited to support SynOx in its continued development of emactuzumab, an agent which has demonstrated profound efficacy in over 60 TGCT patients treated to date.”
The SynOx Board will consist of Jacob Gunterberg (HealthCap), Francesco De Rubertis (Medicxi), Dirk Kersten (Forbion), Michaël Vlemmix (Gimv), Declan Doogan (chairman of Celleron) and Nick La Thangue.
