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Syncona launches new gene therapy company Beacon Therapeutics with £96 million Series A financing

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Syncona Ltd announced that it has launched Beacon Therapeutics Holdings Limited (Beacon Therapeutics), a leading ophthalmic gene therapy company with a purpose to restore and improve the vision of patients with retinal diseases, with a £96 million Series A financing.

Key highlights:

Syncona’s holding value in Beacon Therapeutics is £60 million, having committed £75 million to the company, including the capital already invested to acquire and restructure AGTC. At the point all current commitments are invested, Syncona will have a 65.3 per cent stake in the business. Syncona led the financing round alongside additional investors including Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE).

The Series A financing will be used to advance Beacon Therapeutics’ gene therapy candidates through to key value inflection points, including Beacon Therapeutics’ lead programme AGTC-501, which is currently in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of XLRP, an inherited monogenic disorder that leads to progressive vision loss in males. 12-month data from its Phase II SKYLINE trial is expected in H2 CY2023.

Beacon Therapeutics also has two promising pre-clinical programmes that Syncona identified. The first asset is an intravitreally delivered gene therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in people over 60, and the second has been in-licensed from the University of Oxford and is targeting cone-rod dystrophy (CRD), a group of inherited vision loss disorders affecting the retina.

The new portfolio company has been created by Syncona through the combination of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation’s (AGTC’s) late-stage programme in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), with two other innovative pre-clinical programmes.

Syncona has combined these assets with AGTC’s later-stage asset in XLRP to create its third ophthalmic gene therapy company, following Nightstar, which sold for $877 million, at a 4.5 multiple of cost, and Gyroscope, which was sold for up to $1.5 billion, at a potential 5.1x multiple of cost.

David Fellows will lead Beacon Therapeutics as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), bringing 40 years’ experience in ophthalmology to the management team, including five years as Nightstar’s CEO. He will be joined by Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Nadia Waheed, a retinal expert and former Chief Medical Officer of Gyroscope, and gene therapy expert Dr Abraham Scaria, who has joined as Chief Scientific Officer. Syncona Investment Management Limited CEO, Chris Hollowood, has been appointed as Chair and Syncona Lead Partner Elisa Petris will be joining the Board as a Director. Professor Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, will be an active advisor on Beacon Therapeutics’ CRD program and has also become a non-executive director.

Chris Hollowood, Chief Executive Officer of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: "By acquiring AGTC and combining its late-stage programme with highly complementary and innovative science from the University of Oxford and elsewhere, we have created an exciting new gene therapy company in an area where we have a great breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise. The creation of this unique company demonstrates Syncona’s creativity and the proactive and proprietary nature of our approach to sourcing new opportunities.

David Fellows, Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Therapeutics, further commented: “Beacon Therapeutics combines a broad development pipeline, a deep scientific foundation, a strong clinical network, and a highly experienced management team to drive forward a unique late-stage clinical and pre-clinical pipeline. With the 12-month data from our Phase II SKYLINE trial for AGTC-501 expected shortly and two highly innovative and differentiated pipeline assets for prevalent and rare blinding diseases, we are excited to be building a new leader in the ophthalmic gene therapy space.”

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