Shares in life sciences company Syncona (SYNC) fell 2% to 263.5p on Wednesday after the company took action to refocus the drug development programme at Autolus, one of its quoted portfolio holdings.
Chief executive Martin Murphy will work more closely with the senior management team at Autolus as it progresses its development of the AUTO1 programme for Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).
This is based on the positive data that the programme has generated in its Phase one and two studies to date and the high unmet medical need in adults.
Meanwhile the company is seeking partnership opportunities to fund additional development plans for its AUTO 3 programme for relapsed/refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
COST CUTS
Autolus also announced a shake up of the management team while the search for a new chief medical officer continued. The company will reduce headcount by 20% in the first quarter of 2021 which is expected save around $15 million of a year.
Numis commented, ‘Syncona’s management will now be more actively involved with Autolus, led by Martin Murphy, demonstrating that they maintain the ability to get ‘hands-on’ with an investment, even though it has listed and the stake has reduced to around 27%.
Numis estimates that the stake now represents around 8% of Syncona’s net asset value after Autolus’ shares have dropped from $40 a share in the summer to $9.3 reflecting the lack of certainty over the data for AUTO 3.
Syncona is trading at a 30% premium to Numis’ estimate of net asset value adjusted for currency and quoted holdings.
This reflects a number of successes from earlier investments in Blue Earth and Nightstar where the company made a return of 10-times and 4.5-times its original stake respectively.
