LONDON: Syncona Ltd has added two new companies to its portfolio, iOnctura and Yellowstone Biosciences.

Syncona has invested €30 million (£25.7 million) in iOnctura, an innovative, clinical-stage, small molecule company combating neglected and hard-to-treat cancers, and launched Yellowstone, a new oncology company pioneering soluble bispecific T-cell receptor (TCR)-based therapies, with a £16.5 million commitment.

iOnctura is a European, clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company developing selective cancer therapeutics against targets that play critical roles in multiple tumour survival pathways.

Syncona invested €30 million (£25.7 million) as part of a €80 million (£68.4 million) Series B financing, which was led by Syncona and included existing investors Merck Ventures, Inkef Capital, Schroders Capital, VI Partners and the 3B Future Health Fund, as well as new investor the European Innovation Council. Syncona will have a 23.0 per cent stake in the business.

iOnctura’s lead candidate, roginolisib, is a first-in-class allosteric (indirect) modulator of PI3K delta (PI3Kδ), which has potential application across a variety of solid tumour and haematological cancers.

PI3Ks are enzymes that help to control growth in cells and are commonly involved in cancer. The biopharma industry has long tried to harness this mechanism for the treatment of cancer but previous generations of PI3K inhibitors have often targeted many PI3K sub-types and, as a result, have high toxicity.

Roginolisib is highly differentiated as the first allosteric modulator of PI3Kδ, affording high selectivity and specific targeting of only the delta isoform. Roginolisib has the potential to become the first successful, clinically meaningful therapy to target this critical cancer mechanism.

Roginolisib demonstrated long-term safety and emerging efficacy in a Phase Ib clinical trial for metastatic uveal melanoma (UM), a rare cancer of the eye where patients have very limited treatment options. In CY2024 iOnctura expects to initiate randomised Phase II trials in UM, and other cancer indications including non-small cell lung cancer and primary myelofibrosis. Syncona is working with the company to explore the breadth of roginolisib’s potential utility.

iOnctura is led by a highly accomplished management team including founder and Chief Executive Officer Catherine Pickering, with Syncona Investment Management Limited (SIML) Managing Partner and Head of Investments, Roel Bulthuis, plus Investment Partner Alice Renard joining the Board as Directors.

Yellowstone is a new biologics company pioneering soluble bispecific TCR-based therapies to unlock a new class of cancer therapeutics. Syncona has launched the company with a £16.5 million Series A commitment and will hold a 60.9 per cent stake in the business.

Through privileged access to a biobank of adult acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients that underwent allogeneic blood cell transplantation, Yellowstone has been able to identify a proprietary set of frequently expressed peptide antigens that represent novel biological targets to treat cancer.

By targeting these specific, frequently expressed antigens, the TCR-based therapies Yellowstone will now develop have the potential to selectively kill cancer cells and, in doing so, change the treatment landscape for patients with AML and beyond, across a range of cancers.

Yellowstone has been spun out from the University of Oxford with the support of Oxford University Innovation (OUI) and is built around the pioneering work of renowned academic clinician, Prof. Paresh Vyas, who joins the company as Chief Scientific Officer alongside an industry-leading team. Neil Johnston also joins as Executive Chair, having spent 17 years at Novartis, most recently as Global Head of Business Development and Licensing. Syncona will be represented on the Board of Yellowstone by SIML Chief Executive Officer Chris Hollowood and Investment Partner Gonzalo Garcia.

Chris Hollowood, CEO of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: “These new portfolio additions showcase the breadth of Syncona’s investment pipeline, which focuses on company creation around highly innovative early-stage scientific research, and investment in companies with emerging clinical data developing transformational medicines.

Yellowstone represents an opportunity to create and build a company from nascent but exciting science, whilst iOnctura is a significant opportunity to invest in a company which is already delivering differentiated clinical data. 

Our focus is on differentiated assets that have significant potential to deliver transformational treatments to patients and in settings where an autonomous biotech company can be scaled to deliver products to approval.

These investments underline the continued strength of Syncona’s network and model, as we look to deliver against our strategy and growth targets.”

Roel Bulthuis, Managing Partner and Head of Investments at Syncona Investment Management Limited and Board member of iOnctura, added: “iOnctura represents a compelling opportunity to invest in line with our strategy and capital allocation focus in a clinical-stage company, and take a promising lead programme through to late-stage development.

To date, no company has been able to successfully target this well-known cancer pathway with sufficient precision. By allosterically modulating PI3Kδ, iOnctura has achieved a new level of precision and could be the first company to develop a clinically meaningful medicine targeting this pathway.

Its programmes have potential utility across a range of cancers, which we are supporting the company to unlock through a refined clinical strategy.”

Catherine Pickering, Chief Executive Officer of iOnctura, said: “This financing is validation of iOnctura’s approach to developing precision cancer treatments with maximum clinical impact. These therapies have the potential to significantly prolong the healthspan of patients suffering with neglected cancer types, such as uveal melanoma. We are pleased to welcome our new investors Syncona and the EIC Fund alongside our existing strong syndicate. Their experience will be invaluable as we look to advance our pipeline and take iOnctura to its next stage of growth.”

Professor Paresh Vyas, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Yellowstone, said: “Frequently expressed antigens that can be targeted therapeutically are notoriously difficult to find but, through two decades of research, we have identified a new class of targets that have potential to treat cancer and extend patient lives. We believe that our technology has the potential to selectively kill tumour cells, whilst sparing healthy cells, in a range of cancers. The strategy that we have built alongside Syncona, will initially focus on developing highly selective TCR-based therapies for AML, where we have formidable experience and data. Beyond that, we are committed to broadening our pipeline to other cancer settings to maximise Yellowstone’s potential.”