Syncona commits $80m to Freeline

Healthcare company Syncona said it had made an $80m (£61.1m) funding commitment to biotech company Freeline.

The first tranche of $40m tranche would allow Freeline to expand its team, continue to develop its manufacturing platform generate further data in its clinical programmes for Haemophilia B and Fabry Disease, and progress its pipeline, Sycona said on Thursday.

Freeline has a pipeline of four disclosed programmes, two of which are clinical stage.

Syncona chief investment officer and Freeline executive chairman Chris Hollowood said: 'Freeline has developed a high-quality gene therapy platform with a novel capsid capable of driving high expression levels to treat systemic diseases.

'We are encouraged by the potential product profile in our lead programme in Haemophilia B and believe Freeline has the opportunity to achieve functional cures for patients across a broad pipeline of systemic diseases.'

Syncona said it would have a 79% fully diluted ownership stake in Freeline at the point full current commitments were invested.