Syncromune, a Fort Lauderdale-based biotech startup on a mission to develop first in class immunotherapies for solid tumors in the oncology field, has raised a $100 million Series A.
The round was led by an undisclosed new institutional investor and included existing backer Wasatch Equity Partners, a spokesperson for the company told Endpoints, which reported the news. The Series A also triggered the conversion of about $45 million worth of convertible notes, Endpoints reported.
The biotech, which was founded in 2020 and is working on combination immunotherapies, expects to use the new funding on a Phase 2a for its drug candidate SV-102 for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, also known as mCRPC, Endpoints reported. Enrollment in the clinical trial was initiated at Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in the Philadelphia area. In total, the company has raised $130 million, according to Pitchbook.
Part of a new generation of vaccine-like approaches to the oncology field, Syncromune is working on an experimental procedure that freezes a tumor and then blasts it with a cocktail of multiple immunotherapies. By freezing some of the tumor, its innards spill out and the patient’s T cells then go after the tumors. “This lets the body sort it out, rather than having to figure it out,” George Prendergast, CEO of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research and scientific advisor to Syncromune, previously told Endpoints.
Led by CEO Eamonn Hobbs, who previously led specialty pharma companies Antares and Delcath Systems, Syncromune is currently focused on developing therapies for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic breast cancer, and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. There is a large unmet need because currently most metastatic solid tumor cancers are incurable, the company says.
Syncromune’s funding round is one of the largest in South Florida this year, and one of two mega-rounds in the healthcare field. In June, Insightec, a Miami-based healthcare technology seeking to revolutionize patient care with focused ultrasound, announced it has raised $150 million in equity financing, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, Nexus Neurotech Ventures and Ally Bridge Group.
Healthcare startups make up one of the largest sectors in South Florida venture capital. In the first half of this year, healthcare companies $378.7 million in venture capital across 29 deals, more than in all of 2023, and the sector could have its best year since 2021, when venture capital investments in the healthcare sector in South Florida reached a high of $1.1 billion.
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