Synosia closes CHF 32M second round

Synosia Therapeutics announced the completion of a CHF32 million ($29 million) second round to fund the development of its Phase II clinical programmes.

The financing was led by Aravis Venture and Investor Growth Capital, along with Swiss Helvetia Fund. All the existing investors, Versant Ventures, Abingworth, Novo A/S and 5am Ventures followed on.

Synosia Therapeutics is developing products for unmet medical needs in psychiatry and neurology and has acquired six clinical-stage compounds from Novartis, Roche and Syngenta.  Two of the compounds are marketed drugs being tested in new indications.

“We are impressed by the quality and breadth of Synosia’s portfolio of clinical-stage compounds and by the strength of its management team”, said Jean-Philippe Tripet, Managing Partner of Aravis Venture. “It’s rare to see a private biotechnology company with four promising compounds in phase II clinical trials.”

“Of the six clinical-stage compounds acquired from Roche, Novartis and Syngenta, two are already marketed by other companies in non-competing indications”, said Jakob Lindberg, Partner of Investor Growth Capital.  “This enables Synosia to build on thousands of years of patient experience, significantly reducing the development risk from a safety perspective.”

Tripet and Gösta Jonsson, independent scientific advisor to Investor Growth Capital, became members of the board of Basel-based Synosia.

In addition, Synosia announced that the following joined the board of directors: Guido Magni, formerly head of global medical science and global drug development at Roche for more than 10 years; Harry Welten, Chief Financial Officer of Arpida; Ralf Rosenow, Partner of Blum&Grob Attorneys at Law and Genghis Lloyd-Harris, Partner of Abingworth.

“With this financing, the company has the necessary financial backing to move its compounds through pivotal phase II clinical trials”, commented Synosia Chairman Brad Bolzon. “The support of a group of premier life science investors clearly validates the quality of this management team and their recent achievements, which is especially gratifying during this uncertain time in the financial markets.”