Gyroscope Therapeutics, a company developing gene therapies and surgical delivery systems for retinal diseases, has announced the successful completion of a £50.4 million Series B financing.
The company has announced that with the new round of funding, it will continue to advance the clinical development of its investigational gene therapy GT005 for dry age-related macular degeneration (dry-AMD), the leading cause of permanent vision impairment for people aged 65 and older.
It will also advance its manufacturing platform to meet patient need worldwide, as well as developing a second-generation Orbit Subretinal Delivery System (SDS) to not only deliver Gyroscope’s investigational therapies, but also be licensed to other gene and cell therapy companies developing medicines.
The funding comes from Syncona and Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), who will contribute £48 million and £2.4 million respectively. The contributions bring Sycona’s total commitment to Gyroscope since its inception to £82 million, and CIC’s total commitment to £3 million.
Khurem Farooq, chief executive officer of Gyroscope said that the company is “grateful for the confidence Syncona and CIC have shown in Gyroscope as we continue to deliver on our promise to bring gene therapy beyond rare disease to help the millions of people worldwide with dry-AMD,” before going on to explain that both the “investigational therapy GT005 and the Orbit SDS are being used to treat patients in early-stage clinical trials and this funding will allow us to collect and analyse safety data needed to then move into larger trials and eventually bring them to market.”
In addition to the Series B funding, Gyroscope also added Edward Lang Jr. to the Gyroscope executive committee, where he will serve as chief corporate affairs officer and brings more than 16 years of communication, public affairs and patient advocacy relations experience in the biotechnology industry from Genentech, Roche, Juno Therapeutics and Sana Biotechnology.
