Sanofi to invest up to $60 million in Gyroscope

UK ophthalmology focussed gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics says that French pharms major Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) has committed to invest up to $60.0 million (£44.5 million) in equity in Gyroscope.

Sanofi will invest $40.0 million in Gyroscope initially, at a premium to Gyroscope’s prior Series C financing, and the remaining $20.0 million will be invested contingent on a future qualifying investment round and subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sanofi onboard as an investor in Gyroscope. Their investment is a testament to the promise of our science and gene therapy programmes to make a difference for people with serious eye diseases,” said Khurem Farooq, chief executive of Gyroscope, adding: “We believe our lead investigational gene therapy, GT005, has the potential to be the first gene therapy for geographic atrophy, a devastating cause of vision loss for more than 5 million people globally, and were pleased to recently announce additional encouraging data from our ongoing Phase I/II FOCUS clinical trial.”