Syncona goes deeper into oncology

One of the latest investments in private oncology companies made by Syncona, the UK Wellcome Trust’s evergreen fund, might ring some old bells. The group today said it was launching with a £16.5m series A financing an Oxford University spinout called Yellowstone Biosciences, which focuses on bispecific T-cell engagers based on soluble T-cell receptors. That’s the same approach being pursued by Immunocore, which has launched the first such product, Kimmtrak; meanwhile, in the engineered T-cell receptor space, Syncona previously funded the neoantigen-focused Neogene, which AstraZeneca bought for $200m in 2022. The difference with Yellostone is that its targets are based on a biobank of samples, including from a rare cohort of patients cured by allogeneic blood cell transplantation, from whom a set of HLA Class II antigens were identified. Syncona has long funded cell therapies, having been an early investor in Autolus, though its most notable success is the gene therapy company Nighstar Therapeutics, sold to Biogen for $877m before imploding. Syncona today also led an €80m series B round as a new investor in Ionctura. That company is best known for being one of the few remaining players in PI3K delta inhibition, though its pipeline includes other mechanisms too.

Syncona's latest investments

Source: OncologyPipeline.