BRIEF—Syncona leads $87 million Series A financing of Clade Therapeutics

Life sciences investment trust Syncona has committed $30.0 million (£21.7 million) to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Clade Therapeutics, in a $87 million Series A financing.

Syncona’s holding value in Clade is £11.2 million following the investment of the first tranche of the Series A commitment and, at the point all current commitments are invested, Syncona will have 22.6% stake in the business.

Syncona led the financing round alongside specialist investors including LifeSci Ventures, Emerson Collective, and global biopharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb.

Clade has been established with the aim of discovering and delivering scalable next generation induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived medicines.

It is led by Dr Chad Cowan, chief executive at Clade, scientific co-founder of CRISPR Therapeutics and former Associate Professor at Harvard University in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Dr Jim Glasheen, chief business officer at Clade, co-founder of Atlanta Therapeutics and former general partner at Technology Partners Venture Capital.

The company’s proprietary platform technology enables the immune ‘cloaking’ of human pluripotent stem cells, meaning that cells are protected from the body’s immune system, potentially enabling long-term persistence and allowing for the development of allogeneic cell transplantation therapies.