New Agreement Boosts Pipeline for Synosia Therapeutics

2007-05-22

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Synosia Therapeutics today announced that it has acquired a license from Syngenta to develop a potentially novel treatment for Parkinson's Disease. This is the third pharmaceutical agreement to be announced for Synosia, which started operations at the beginning of this year to develop new treatments for disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). The company now has a pipeline of seven compounds, with an option on an eighth, following previous deals with Roche and Novartis. Dr Ian Massey, Chief Executive Officer and President of Synosia Therapeutics said: "This compound is a perfect fit for our strategy of using small, smart clinical trials to rapidly establish proof-of-concept and explore the full potential of clinically-enabled drugs. "We already know a lot about this molecule and by applying innovative clinical designs, together with the latest imaging tools, we can quickly generate clinical information in new therapeutic areas," he said. The compound, called SYN-118, is a hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD) inhibitor, and is already approved in the US and Europe for the treatment of hereditary tyrosinemia type 1, a life-threatening metabolic disorder. The drug is marketed by Swedish Orphan International under the name Orfadin(R) (nitisinone), under license from Syngenta. Terms of the Agreement Under the terms of the agreement, Synosia will assume responsibility for the ongoing clinical development and commercialisation of SYN-118 in CNS. Contingent upon progress, Syngenta will receive milestone payments and royalties upon commercialisation. About Synosia Therapeutics Synosia Therapeutics is a privately-owned, drug development company, focused on developing new treatments for disorders of the central nervous system. Its leadership team has over 180 years of combined experience in drug development. Synosia has offices in Basel, Switzerland, and is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA. The company was spun out of EuroVentures Inc., a wholly-owned incubator of Versant Ventures, and recently changed its name from Synosis Therapeutics. Synosia Therapeutics has raised $32.5 million funding from Versant Ventures (Menlo Park, CA), Abingworth Management (London), 5AM Ventures (Menlo Park, CA) and Novo A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark). For more information, visit Synosia Therapeutics CONTACT: Contact Synosia Therapeutics, In Europe: Julie Walters at MediaSpeak, Tel: +44-(0)1494-753-990, Mobile +44-(0)775-3626967,julie.walters@mediaspeak.com; In US: Michele Parisi at Media Speak, Tel:+1-925-864-5028, michele.parisi@mediaspeak.com

机构