Freeline Therapeutics plc is being taken private by its founding investor and majority shareholder Syncona Ltd, in an all-cash transaction that values the Nasdaq-listed gene therapy specialist at $28.3 million. Syncona also will provide up to $15 million cash to keep Freeline afloat as it awaits the next tranche of data on its lead program FLT-201, which is positioned as a one-off treatment for the lysosomal storage disorder, Gaucher’s disease.
Novo Nordisk A/S announced positive clinical data for its two hemophilia therapies and said each is shaping up to fill unmet needs in what is an increasingly competitive market.
LONDON – Facing down the pandemic, U.K. biopharma had a record summer, raising just over £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) from June to August. That was up from £585 million in the second quarter of 2020, and brings the amount raised in the first nine months to £1.9 billion, putting 2020 on target to beat the 2018 record, when the annual total was £2.2 billion.
DUBLIN – Gene therapy developer Freeline Therapeutics Ltd. added $80 million in new investment to take its series C round to $120 million in total. The new cash will help to fund a pivotal trial of its lead gene therapy program in hemophilia B, enable it to continue a phase I/II trial of a gene therapy in Fabry disease and allow it to progress its preclinical programs in Gaucher disease and hemophilia A, while also making ongoing investments in its adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy technology and its manufacturing platform.
LONDON – Freeline Therapeutics Ltd. believes it has found the dose at which FLT-180a, its gene therapy for hemophilia B, will provide a functional cure, promoting expression of factor IX (FIX) blood clotting factor within the normal range.
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.
LONDON – After a long haul to market, recent approvals and initial commercial successes of advanced cell and gene therapies are shifting the balance of power between biotech and pharma in dealmaking.