Syncona takes part in oversubscribed funding round for OMass

Syncona committed further funding for rare-disease specialist OMass Therapeutics alongside a syndicate of investors which included a unit of French drug giant Sanofi.

OMass's boss, Ros Deegan, called attention to the high-calibre of the investors, both old and new, and the outfit's proprietary technology.

"We have already made significant progress against highly validated but previously 'undruggable' targets and can now accelerate them towards clinical development while continuing to expand our pipeline," Deegan added.

OMass was an Oxford University spin out focused on the development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of rare diseases and immunological conditions using its proprietary OdyssION platform.

The closed-ended investment trust invested £15m out of the total of £75.5m raised in the oversubscribed series B financing round.

That resulted in a £8m write-up of its holding, bringing its value to £44m, for a 31% stake in OMass on drawdown of the full series B financing.

Three new investors, GV, Northpond and Sanofi Ventures led the latest financing round, together with existing ones, including Oxford Science Enterprises and Oxford University.