Biotech startup Syneron Bio has secured nearly $100 million in Series A and A+ rounds of financing to advance its development of macrocyclic peptide therapeutics targeting oncology and chronic diseases.
Syneron Bio, which is currently operating from China, raised the new rounds from lead investors including the global biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and its joint fund with China’s CICC Capital—the AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund—the startup announced on Thursday.
A group of investment firms participated, including Pfizer Biotech Development Investment Fund; GL Ventures; 5Y Capital; Sinovation Ventures; Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group; and Gree Capital, the investment vehicle of Chinese air conditioner maker Gree Group, among others.
“This financing will significantly strengthen the development of our intelligent high-throughput macrocyclic peptide development platform, Synova, and provide the resources needed to advance multiple pipelines toward clinical stages,” said Dr Xiao Zhang, founder and CEO of Syneron Bio.
The funding support from AstraZeneca comes months after it formed a strategic collaboration with Syneron Bio in March, including upfront payments and potential milestone payments of up to $3.4 billion to the startup, as they joined hands in developing first-in-class macrocyclic peptides.
Under this collaboration, AstraZeneca has gained access to Syneron Bio’s Synova platform, which is designed to support the advancements of research programmes exploring possible future treatments of chronic diseases, including rare, autoimmune, and metabolic disease.
As a result of this collaboration, the startup also planned to expand its Beijing R&D centre.
