British-based gene therapy company Gyroscope Therapeutics, with United States headquarters based in Ambler, raised $60.6 million in a venture capital financing with a Series B round  led by Syncona Ltd., a previous backer that invested just under $58 million.

Syncona is a London-based investment trust focus on the life science industry. Cambridge Innovation Capital, another previous investor, also participated in the round.

This came after Gyroscope merged with Orbit Biomedical, a Montgomery County-based company, with the gene therapy companies focused on developing new treatments for retinal disease, writes John George in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

It’s been estimated that about 11 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, either dry or wet form. Dry form of macular degeneration is present when light sensitive cells slowly break down and it is more common than wet form, making up 90 percent of diagnosed cases.

The company will use the financing for its manufacturing platform and a second-generation Orbit subretinal delivery system it is advancing to deliver its own investigational therapies and to potentially licensed to other gene and cell therapy companies for their products.

According to the story in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Chris Hollowood, chief investment officer of Syncona and chairman of Gyroscope, said the company brought GT005 to the clinic in less than two and half years from formation of Gyroscope.

“[The company has also] built a surgical platform alongside that has the potential to improve the therapeutic’s safety, efficacy and consistency as well as increase the number of patients that can potentially benefit” from gene therapies, he said.

To read the complete story in the Philadelphia Business Journal click here.

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