NEW YORK – Synnovation Therapeutics launched on Wednesday, having raised $102 million in a Series A funding round.
The financing was led by Third Rock Ventures and included participation from Nextech, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sirona Capital, and Cormorant Asset Management. The firm will use the funding to advance its clinical and preclinical pipeline.
Wilmington, Delaware-based Synnovation said it is building a pipeline around "highly validated precision oncologic targets" and aiming to improve potency, selectivity, and pharmaceutical properties within its programs. The firm has disclosed two pipeline candidates so far: the PARP1 inhibitor SNV1521 and the PI3K-alpha inhibitor SNV4818.
SNV1521, for example, is designed to be highly selective and inhibit certain PARP1 isoforms and is being studied in a Phase I trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. The firm expects to begin treating patients in the study in the coming weeks. SNV1521 has shown efficacy and safety advantages in preclinical studies, as compared to existing therapies in its class. "PARP1 isoform selective inhibition is emerging as one of the most exciting new approaches to combat solid tumors, offering the potential to create new and well-tolerated therapeutic approaches that attack genetic and pharmacologic vulnerabilities of cancer," the company said.
SNV4818 is still in preclinical studies but is the lead agent within a broader program targeting oncogenic PI3K-alpha. This drug leverages "multiple distinct mutant-selective approaches," according to Synnovation, and is designed to have "excellent" selectivity for PIK3CA H1047X mutations and moderate selectivity for PIK3CA E545/542X mutations. The firm expects to develop follow-on compounds within these PARP1 and PI3K-alpha programs and has other undisclosed candidates.
CEO Wenqing Yao was most recently executive VP and head of discovery chemistry at Incyte. Others who previously worked at Incyte will also be joining Synnovation, including Liangxing Wu as senior VP of drug discovery, Phillip Liu as head of biology, and Kevin O'Hayer, as head of clinical development.