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Narrated by James Marriott
This was not the way to start the week that investors in Syncona would have been hoping for. News that the life sciences investment trust had been forced to take a £54.5 million hit – taken against the value of “milestone payments” due from its sale of Gyroscope to Novartis 18 months ago – dealt a predictable blow to its share price.
Novartis has told Syncona that it is halting development of GT005, Gyroscope’s lead asset in the field of macular degeneration, after a risk assessment did not support the programme. Shares in Syncona, which was launched about a decade ago with an ambition to fill the void in transforming promising British science into successful businesses, promptly fell by 7p, or 5.5 per cent, to
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