DUBLIN – Gene therapy firm Freeline Therapeutics Ltd. secured the first $40 million tranche of an $80 million series C round from its founding investor and principal shareholder Syncona plc to generate further data from its two clinical-stage programs, in hemophilia B and Fabry disease, to fund expansion of its team and to continue the ongoing buildout of its manufacturing operations in Munich.

Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. (GBT) agreed to a discovery, development and commercialization deal to treat sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia. GBT, of South San Francisco, Calif., will pay Syros $20 million up front and fund up to $40 million in preclinical research for at least three years, with the goal of identifying targets and discovering drugs to induce fetal hemoglobin.