Syncona aims Slingshot at biotech's 'translational gap'

UK-based life science investor Syncona has launched a new company – Slingshot Therapeutics – with a mission to find promising projects in academia and translate them into full-blown development projects.

Slingshot, which was incorporated in August, starts life with £12.5 million (around $15 million) in funding from Syncona, a lead development programme in inflammatory diseases, and a mission to "unlock the potential of promising academic drug discovery by progressing it at pace."

That could help plug the "translational gap" in new medicines development, bridging the divide between basic science and clinical practice, which is one reason why the development of novel therapies fails to keep pace with the rate of basic research discoveries.

The new accelerator company is chaired by Syncona managing partner Edward Hodgkin, who has previously held chief executive roles at UK biotechs Autolus Therapeutics and Biotica, with former Translate Bio and Tarveda Therapeutics chief scientific officer Richard Wooster taking on the same role.

Its first programme, called Apini and sourced from University of Manchester, is a small-molecule drug called SSTX-001, designed to inhibit the pro-inflammatory activity of eNAMPT, which may be involved in the pathophysiology of a range of chronic inflammatory diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and osteoarthritis.

It has emerged from the lab of Manchester medicinal chemist Professor Sam Butterworth, who has extensive drug discovery and development experience and was an inventor of AstraZeneca's blockbuster EGFR inhibitor Tagrisso (osimertinib).

The £12.5 million will go towards supporting the development of Apini, along with creating the operational structures of Slingshot and developing its platform.

"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 Hodgkin.

"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," he added.

Syncona will have a 100% stake in Slingshot, with a current holding value of £5.6 million following investment of the first tranche of the total commitment, according to the investment fund, which says the new company will benefit from its expertise in creating and building companies from early-stage science.

"Slingshot will offer academic founders access to development expertise that is rarely available to singular early-stage programmes, as well as centralised resource, funding, and operational support," it added.

"This will enable them to efficiently advance their programmes and creates a variety of options to further progress programmes through the clinic and ultimately to patients."

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