LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Syncona announced a CHF 28m (£21.4m) commitment to Anaveon, a new immuno-oncology company, in a CHF 35m Series A financing on Tuesday, alongside the Novartis Venture Fund.
The FTSE 250 firm said it would have a 47.0% stake in the business.

It said the financing would support the development of a selective Interleukin 2 (IL-2) receptor agonist.

Syncona chief executive Martin Murphy, Syncona partner Dominic Schmidt, and Florian Muellershausen from Novartis Venture Fund had joined Anaveon's board of directors, with Alice Renard - a Syncona partner - to be an observer.

Anaveon was founded in December 2017 by experts in the field of immunotherapy - Onur Boyman, professor and chair in the department of immunology at the University of Zurich and a recognised IL-2 biology expert; and Andreas Katopodis, previously director at the Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Inflammation Group at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Syncona said Anaveon was founded with initial seed capital from the UZH Life Sciences Fund, which would convert in the Series A financing and additional funding from BaseLaunch, a healthcare accelerator operated by BaselArea.swiss.

The company was developing a selective IL-2 receptor agonist, which Anaveon said was a type of protein that could therapeutically enhance a patient's immune system to respond to tumours.

In the body, human IL-2 stimulated a type of immune cell, called a T-cell, to multiply and become activated.

Under certain situations, T-cells were able to attack tumours and, consistent with that , human IL-2 was already approved as a medicine for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cancer.

Human IL-2 had certain drawbacks, Anaveon noted, reporting that it could be toxic and had a short half-life requiring repeat dosing.

Anaveon's product was designed to address those challenges.

It said the type of drug, if approved, could potentially have a "wide utility" in oncology, including in cell therapies, vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors and in combination with radiotherapy.

"Based on the pioneering work of Onur Boyman, who was the first to demonstrate redirection of IL-2 activity in vivo, Anaveon has developed biologic approaches for the highly selective expansion of anti-tumour immune cells," said Anaveon co-founder and chief executive Andreas Katopodis.

"Our compounds act as adjuvants to increase anti-tumour immune responses."

Katopodis said pre-clinical evidence showed they had "marked efficacy" in a variety of tumour models, either as mono-therapy or as combination therapy.

"We are very excited to partner with two leading life science supporters to bring our compounds into the clinic and demonstrate benefit to patients."

Anaveon was Syncona's 10th life science company following its investment in OMass Therapeutics in August last year.

"Our commitment to Anaveon is a great example of our strategy to build truly innovative companies anchored by exceptional science and experienced teams," said Syncona Investment Management chief executive Martin Murphy.

"Anaveon has a strong strategic fit across Syncona's cell therapy portfolio and we are excited by the potential to develop a best-in-class product in the IL-2 space.

"The Syncona team will work in close partnership with the company's world-leading founders to develop its business plan and clinical pathway."

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