Gyroscope Therapeutics, a UK-based developer of treatments for retinal disease, secured $148m today in a series C round backed by Fosun Pharma, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Fosun.
The round was led by Forbion’s Growth Opportunities Fund and included life sciences investment firm Syncona, Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Sofinnova Investments, Tetragon Financial Group and an unnamed healthcare fund. Syncona supplied $42.3m and now owns a 54% stake in the company.
Established by Syncona and tech transfer office Cambridge Enterprise in 2016, Gyroscope is working on gene therapies for diseases of the eye that cause vision loss.
The company’s lead asset, GT005, is undergoing phase 2 trials for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
The series C capital has been allocated to the further clinical development of GT005 and the advancement of work on Gyroscope’s early-stage product pipeline and subretinal drug delivery system.
Gyroscope chief executive Khurem Farooq said: “We are excited to welcome a new group of leading life sciences investors on our journey to deliver gene therapy beyond rare disease.
“Their investment in Gyroscope will allow us to continue building our portfolio of investigational gene therapies, including our lead investigational gene therapy, GT005.
“We recently announced encouraging phase 1/2 clinical trial data with GT005 that give us confidence in its potential as a treatment for geographic atrophy and are now focused on advancing our phase 2 clinical programme.”
Syncona had previously led Gyroscope’s $61.2m series B round in September 2019. The round also featured CIC, which had already supplied an undisclosed amount in March 2019, a month before Gyroscope merged with medical device maker Orbit Biomedical, also a Syncona portfolio company.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
