Slingshot Therapeutics launches with its first programme and £12.5 million to accelerate early-stage drug development

• New company created to unlock the potential of promising academic drug discovery, by accelerating a pipeline of early-stage programmes towards the clinic
• £12.5 million committed by investor Syncona to build the platform, progress its first programme Apini and to identify additional opportunities for its pipeline
• Initial focus on small molecule medicines across a range of therapeutic areas, with Apini targeting inflammatory disease

Slingshot Therapeutics Limited (“Slingshot”), the Syncona Accelerator, today launches to unlock the potential of promising academic drug discovery, by accelerating a pipeline of early-stage programmes towards the clinic. Slingshot has been launched alongside its first programme Apini, focused on inflammatory diseases, and with a £12.5 million commitment from Syncona Limited (“Syncona”). Slingshot will use the proceeds to build its platform, progress its lead programme and to identify additional opportunities for its pipeline.

Founded by Syncona, Slingshot has been built to identify and advance de-risked therapeutic programmes from the work of leading academic researchers. Slingshot will in-license its programmes, work closely with founding scientists, and provide access to centralised expertise, resource, funding and operational support. Slingshot aims to initially accumulate a pipeline of small molecule programmes across a range of therapeutics areas where there is significant unmet medical need, identified from world-leading academic institutions in the UK, US and Europe, and accelerate these towards clinical development.

Slingshot is an exciting addition to the Syncona portfolio, focused on accelerating exceptional academic science into attractive biotech assets ready for the clinic, creating an opportunity for a variety of paths to take medicines to patients. Slingshot represents an opportunity to bridge the gap between academic innovation and clinical development of a novel medicine, whilst presenting Syncona with a capital efficient way to access the returns available from translating early innovation into promising biotech assets. Slingshot looks to partner with outstanding scientific researchers who possess unique insights into the relationship between drug targets and disease outcomes. We are very excited to be able to announce our first programme, Apini, and continue our work to actively source additional opportunities for Slingshot across a broad range of therapeutic areas.”

Edward Hodgkin
Executive Chair of Slingshot and Managing Partner at Syncona Investment Management Limited

Slingshot’s first programme, Apini (SSTX-001), a small molecule therapeutic aimed at treating inflammatory diseases, has been in-licensed from The University of Manchester, UK, and is founded on the innovative work of Professor Sam Butterworth. Professor Butterworth has extensive expertise in drug discovery and development, particularly in structure-based drug design. He has a track record of success, being an inventor of the drug Tagrisso, which is approved in more than 100 countries for the treatment of patients with EGFR mutant lung cancer.

Slingshot is led by a world class management team including Edward Hodgkin, Executive Chair, and Richard Wooster, Chief Scientific Officer, with backing from leading life science investor, Syncona. Additional appointments have also been made to support Slingshot’s operations and the scientific development of its pipeline.

For too long there have been exceptional individual therapeutic opportunities that have stalled or moved slowly through academic research. Slingshot is the solution. It has been established to advance these ideas to industry standards with a clear line of sight to transformative medicines. We are excited to have already in-licensed our first programme which is based upon compelling evidence that supports its potential to treat inflammatory diseases. We look forward to in-licensing additional programmes and working closely with scientific founders to transform their research into tangible assets that are advancing towards the clinic.”

Richard Wooster
Director of Slingshot and Executive Partner at Syncona Investment Management Limited

Contact

• info@slingshot-accelerator.co.uk

About Slingshot

Slingshot Therapeutics Limited (“Slingshot”), the Syncona Accelerator, was built to identify and advance de-risked therapeutic programmes from the work of leading academic researchers.

Slingshot provides an innovative platform with access to centralised expertise, resource, funding and operational support to accelerate exceptional academic science into attractive biotech assets ready for clinical development. Slingshot aims to accumulate a pipeline of small molecule programmes across a range of therapeutics areas where there is significant unmet medical need, identified from world-leading academic institutions in the UK, US and Europe. For more information please visit: slingshot-accelerator.co.uk

About Syncona

Syncona’s purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life. We do this by creating, building and scaling companies to deliver transformational treatments to patients in areas of high unmet need.

We aim to build and maintain a diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading life science businesses, across development stage, modality and therapeutic area, for the benefit of all our stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments that deliver patient impact by working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and experienced management teams. Our balance sheet underpins our strategy, enabling us to take a long-term view as we look to improve the lives of patients with no or poor treatment options, build sustainable life science companies and deliver strong risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.