Kynos Therapeutics, an Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based immune-metabolic company, raised GBP£9M in funding.
The £6.5m equity round was led by Epidarex Capital, joined by Ip Group and Scottish Enterprise. Kynos has also been awarded £2.5m through an Innovate Uk Grant. Following the financing Dr Elizabeth Roper, Partner at Epidarex Capital, and Dr Tassos Konstantinou, Investment Manager, Life Sciences at IP Group plc, have joined Kynos’s board of directors.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts, in particular to finance its lead KMO inhibitor (KMOi) programme through Phase 1 clinical trials and to progress its innovative pipeline of first-in-class KMOi across key indications in inflammation, immunity and metabolism.
Kynos Therapeutics is an immune-metabolic company with world-leading expertise in the kynurenine pathway and kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO) biology. A spin-out from the University of Edinburgh, the company has a pipeline of KMO inhibitors across key indications in inflammation, immunity and metabolism, which was originally co-developed through a collaboration between GSK and the University of Edinburgh and is now exclusively licensed to Kynos.
KMO plays a major role in the control of inflammation and metabolism, contributing to the regulation of the immune system. It is a mitochondrial enzyme that converts kynurenine into biologically active 3HK that damages cells. Blocking KMO reduces 3HK, protecting against tissue damage. Kynos’s pipeline is focused on three key areas: in critical illness post-surgery; in conditions driven by inflammation; and in cancers where inflammation is preventing the immune system from fighting back.
Kynos’s core founding team are leading experts in KMO biology and medicinal chemistry with clinical, translational and drug discovery experience: CEO Damian J Mole (Professor of Surgery and MRC Senior Clinical Fellow, the University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research; and CSO Scott Webster (Professor of Medicines Discovery, Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh). The industry engagement and launch of the spin-out company have been supported by Edinburgh Innovations, the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service.
FinSMEs
08/04/2022