Syncona launches Slingshot platform with £12.5m investment

(Sharecast News) - Syncona announced the launch of Slingshot Therapeutics, a new portfolio company and accelerator dedicated to developing early-stage life science programs sourced from academia, on Thursday. The FTSE 250 company said it had committed an initial £12.5m to Slingshot, with a current holding value of £5.6m following the first tranche of the investment.

It said Slingshot would remain wholly owned by Syncona, offering a capital-efficient and centralised structure to drive multiple preclinical projects towards clinical development.

Slingshot's first programme, 'Apini', or SSTX-001, a small molecule aimed at treating inflammatory diseases, was sourced from the University of Manchester.

The Syncona Accelerator's goal was to establish a robust pipeline of early-stage biotech programs, leveraging Syncona's expertise to provide academic founders with the resources, funding, and operational support needed to advance innovative therapies.

By operating multiple programs under one umbrella, Syncona said Slingshot was designed to de-risk early-stage investments and potentially increase the return on translational science.

The new company would be led by Syncona Investment Management managing partner Edward Hodgkin as executive chair, with Richard Wooster, SIML's executive partner since August, serving as chief scientific officer.

Additionally, SIML's chief financial officer Kate Butler had joined Slingshot's board.

The initial investment would support Slingshot's operational build-out, team, and platform, positioning the company to accelerate high-potential biotech assets from the lab to the clinic and ultimately to patients.

"Slingshot is an exciting addition to the Syncona portfolio, focused on accelerating exceptional academic science into attractive biotech assets ready for the clinic, creating an opportunity for a variety of paths to take medicines to patients," said Edward Hodgkin, managing partner at SIML and executive chair of Slingshot.

"Slingshot represents an opportunity to bridge the gap between academic innovation and clinical development of a novel medicine, whilst presenting Syncona with a capital efficient way to access the returns available from translating early innovation into promising biotech assets."

Hodgkin said Slingshot was looking to partner with outstanding scientific researchers with "unique insights" into the relationship between drug targets and disease outcomes.

"We are very excited to be able to announce our first programme, Apini, and continue our work to actively source additional opportunities for Slingshot across a broad range of therapeutic areas."

At 1346 GMT, shares in Syncona were down 1.01% at 111.66p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.