Synnovation Therapeutics launched this week with $102 million in financing led by Third Rock Ventures with participation from Nextech, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sirona Capital, and Cormorant Asset Management. Former research executives of Wilmington-based Incyte formed the company.
Proceeds will fund the advancement of the company’s clinical and preclinical pipeline that focuses on cancer.
Synnovatrion is based at the Innovation Space at the DuPont Experimental Station near Wilmington.
Synnovation’s pipeline is built around cancer targets where greater potency, selectivity and optimized pharmaceutical properties have the potential to address liabilities in existing standards of care, and improve patient outcomes, a release stated.
The company is initiating a Phase I study and anticipates dosing its first patient in the coming weeks.
While at Incyte, the management team worked together for more than a decade and contributed to the discovery of five approved drugs including blood cancer drug Jakafi and Olumiant a cream used to treat skin conditions.
“At Synnovation, we have assembled a top-notch team dedicated to fostering a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach as advocated by my mentor Dr. Ralph F. Hirschman, who ardently believed that the collaboration between creative chemists and outstanding biologists could lead to remarkable discoveries,” said Wenqing Yao, CEO of Synnovation. “Our goal is to develop best-in-class therapies, ultimately aiming to enhance the lives of patients. We look forward to advancing in the clinic with SNV1521, a novel PARP1 selective inhibitor, as we continue to grow our potential best-in-class pipeline of agents.”
“Synnovation was founded by one of the most accomplished medicinal chemistry teams in biopharma,” said Reid Huber, board member at Synnovation and partner at Third Rock Ventures. “This highly experienced leadership team has a rich history of successful drug discovery and development, and a passion to build further on this success. We are excited to be a part of this company and look forward to what this stellar team will accomplish as it takes its decades of experience and applies them to an entirely new set of R&D challenges.”
Huber is the former chief scientific officer of Incyte and was a founding member of the the team that grew the company that had its roots in California but later moved to Delaware.
The funding was another success story for The Innovation Space, a venture that involves DuPont, The University of Delaware and the State of Delaware. The Innovation Space offers lab space, offices and other services to young companies.
