Synerkine Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company based in Leiden, has announced on Thursday that it has successfully secured €5.3M in an extension of its Series A financing.
The funding round was led by Flerie and was supported by new investors such as InnovationQuarter Capital and Utrecht Health Seed Fund, along with existing investor Thuja Capital.
The equity financing is accompanied by a matching innovation credit from Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend (RVO) Nederland – the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.
The announcement comes over a year after raising €3.5M in another Series A extension round of funding in December 2021. In 2019, the Dutch company raised €3.3M in its Series A round from Thuja Capital and others.
The total new proceeds of €12.1M will be used to accelerate the development of Synerkine Pharma’s lead asset SK-01, a therapeutically active cytokine fusion protein, into clinical studies in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a severe chronic pain indication.
“A lack of innovation has held back the treatment of severe and chronic pain for years, and an overreliance on opioid medications has led to wide-reaching negative effects. We aim to reimagine chronic pain treatment with a novel first-in-class approach that could result in a long-term pain-resolving effect,” says Hans Preusting, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Synerkine Pharma.
“With the financial resources to advance our lead program into clinical trials secured, our focus will move towards establishing safety and proof-of-concept for our novel cytokine fusion approach. Our lead asset, SK-01, is progressing steadily towards the clinic, supported by a robust preclinical data package and with process development for larger scale manufacturing well underway,” adds Preusting.
Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability globally and associated with enormous health-care costs.
An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that the interaction between the nervous and immune systems plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of pain.
Here’s where Synerkine Pharma addresses the problem.
Synerkine Pharma: Treating chronic pain
Synerkine Pharma was founded in 2018 by Hans Preusting as a spin-off company from the University Medical Center Utrecht.
The company focuses on the development of novel fusion proteins, called Synerkines, that combine the immunoregulatory activity of different cytokines.
These fusion proteins have unique benefits over the individual cytokines and modulate a broad number of targets, including key elements in the pain pathway.
It provides treatment options for chronic pain conditions with a clearly differentiated mechanism of action over current analgesic drugs and holds tremendous therapeutic and commercial potential.
The mode-of-action aims to reverse the state of central sensitization, a heightened sensitivity to pain, holding the potential to fully reverse chronic pain.
Synerkine Pharma’s lead molecule, SK-01, a fusion of the cytokines IL-4 and IL-10, targets multiple cell types and pathways involved in chronic pain and has demonstrated durable effects in a relevant animal model.
The investor
Flerie is an active long-term life science investor, focusing on biotech and pharmaceutical investments globally. Based out of Stockholm and London, Flerie manages a portfolio of 33 investments in Europe, Israel, and the US.
The company has over $300M AUM spread across 23 product development companies, seven commercial growth companies, and three funds.
“Synerkine has achieved significant progress over the last 24 months and is well prepared to reach the next value inflection point of clinical readout. We look forward to working with current and new partners helping the team to unlock the potential of their novel disease-modifying biology with a unique mode-of-action,” commented Ted Fjällman, Chief Executive Officer of Flerie.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/dutch-synerkine-pharma-scores-5-3m/
