Synosia Therapeutics, a Swiss drug developer focused on psychiatry and neurology, has raised CHF 32 million ($29m) in Series B funding. Aravis Venture and Investor Growth Capital co-led the round, and was joined by Swiss Helvetia Fund and return backers Versant Ventures, Abingworth, Novo A/S and 5am Ventures.
PRESS RELEASE
Synosia Therapeutics today announced the completion of a CHF32 million (USD 29 million) Series B private financing. The proceeds will be used to fund the ongoing development of its emerging portfolio of phase II clinical programmes.
The financing was led by Aravis Venture and Investor Growth Capital and was joined by Swiss Helvetia Fund. All existing investors – Versant Ventures, Abingworth, Novo A/S and 5am Ventures – also participated in the round.
“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.”
As part of this Series B financing, Jean-Philippe Tripet of Aravis, and Gösta Jonsson, independent scientific advisor to Investor Growth Capital, became members of the company’s board of directors.
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. Ian Massey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Synosia paid tribute to retiring board members Mark Moran, Hervé Girsault, Brian Atwood and Andrew Sandham: “Their contributions were vital in the early development of the company. Thanks to their efforts, we now have a strong portfolio of clinical-stage assets and a sound strategy to develop our compounds. I am also pleased that Mark Moran will continue to play an important role as our Chief Medical Advisor”.
“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.”
About Synosia Therapeutics
Synosia Therapeutics develops and intends to commercialise innovative and clinically differentiated products for unmet medical needs in psychiatry and neurology. The privately-owned company has in its pipeline six clinical-stage compounds acquired through key partnerships with Novartis, Roche and Syngenta. Two of the compounds are marketed drugs being tested in new indications to extend their reach into neurological and psychiatric diseases with high unmet medical need, including anxiety and Parkinson’s disease. Synosia’s headquarters is in Basel, Switzerland. For more information visit www.synosia.com
About Aravis Venture
Aravis is a Switzerland based venture capital organisation, managing two funds focused on life science (Aravis Biotech I & II) and a third fund focused on renewable energy (Aravis Energy I). Since 1995, the Aravis management team has invested over $600 million in more than 80 companies. www.aravis.ch
About Investor Growth Capital
Investor Growth Capital is the wholly owned venture capital arm of Investor AB (Investor). Investor, publicly traded on the Stockholm exchange, is the largest listed industrial holding company in Northern Europe. Investor was founded in 1916 to continue the Wallenberg family’s tradition of financing and building best-in-class companies. www.investorab.com
About the Swiss Helvetia Fund
Swiss Helvetia Fund is a non-diversified, closed-end investment company whose objective is to seek long-term capital appreciation through investment in equity and equity-linked securities of Swiss companies, listed and non listed. The Fund also may acquire and hold equity and equity-linked securities of non-Swiss companies in limited instances. www.swz.com
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