BioWorld Today Correspondent

LONDON – Synosia Therapeutics sealed a $725 million pact on its two lead drugs for treating Parkinson's disease with UCB Pharma, and announced the closing of a third round funding of $30 million.

The deal kicks off with UCB leading the third round, putting in $20 million, and also making an undisclosed up-front payment to Synosia. Following this, the Basel, Switzerland-based company could receive regulatory and commercial milestones, up to a total of $725 million for the two compounds.

The agreement also allows for additional compounds from either company's pipeline to be brought into the collaboration, or to be sourced from elsewhere. Synosia has six compounds in total in its portfolio.

"This is a substantial deal in difficult times, when companies are struggling and the number of partnerships is down," Brad Bolzon, chairman of Synosia told BioWorld Today. "To do a deal as strategic as this is really exciting. It took a while to get over the finish line."

Ismail Kola, executive vice president of drug discovery at Brussels, Belgium-based UCB, said he is impressed with Synosia's development capabilities and, "the possibility of expanding our alliance in the future." UCB is portraying the deal as a strategic partnership in neurology, saying this is underlined by the fact that two UCB staff, President of North American Operations Greg Duncan and Kola will join Synosia's board.

Bolzon said this will be a long-term relationship. The deal has been cooking for two years, and Synosia knows the UCB people who will be involved in collaboration.

"UCB is committed to the field of Parkinson's disease. We know the compounds will be in good hands, and not lost in some pipeline shuffling, as so often is the case in big pharma deals," Bolzon said.

The compounds that are the subject of the initial deal are Syn 115, an orally administered adenosine 2A (A2a) antagonist, and Syn 118, a 4 hydroxyphenyl-pyruvate dioxygenase inhibitor.

Syn-115, in-licensed by Synosia from F. Hoffmann-La Roche, is able to cross the blood-brain barrier. The compound significantly improved measures of both motor and non-motor function in Phase IIa trials reported earlier this year. The trial also showed significant dose-related changes in blood flow in relevant regions of the brain.

Syn 118, or nitisinone, is marketed by Swedish Orphan as Orfadin for treating tyrosinemia. Synosia has rights to develop the drug in all non-orphan indications, and in Phase I trials has shown it is well tolerated and significantly improves motor scores in Parkinson's disease. It has also been tested in restless leg syndrome, an indication for which UCB already has another drug under development.

Both compounds are in the later stages of Phase II. Once they are ready to enter Phase III, UCB Pharma will take on development and bear all subsequent costs.

All the compounds in Synosia's portfolio were in-licensed from big pharma, with four from Roche and one each from Novartis AG and Syngenta AG. All came with fattish data files and each has a different mode of action.

The $30 million third round brings the total raised by Synosia since its formation in 2005 to $100 million. Along with the $20 million invested by UCB, the remainder of the third-round money came from existing investors, Versant Ventures, 5Am Ventures, Novo A/S, Aravis Venture, Investor Growth Capital and Swiss Helvetia Fund.

Bolzon, who represents Versant on the Synosia board, said that along with expected milestones, the financing is intended to allow Synosia "to go the distance" and not need to raise any more money.

"The company is now set up very well, at a time when many biotechs are starving, and it is working in the area of speciality neurology, which is very attractive," he said.

As to possible exits for the venture capital investors, Bolzon said that with little prospect currently of reaching a public market, "Trade sale seems to be the exit of choice."