WILMINGTON —
Synnovation Therapeutics, a precision oncology company established by former Incyte researchers, has received state taxpayer-backed grants to help fuel the next stage of growth at The
Innovation Space.
Founded in 2021, Synnovation Therapeutics is a developer of therapies designed to target key gene mutations and other pathways implicated with cancer. Right now, the start-up has at least three treatments in its pipeline, which includes its lead drug candidate SNV1521, a first-in-class inhibitor of the PARP1 enzyme.
The company has been based out of the Innovation Space, located on DuPont's Experimental Station campus, but, in the last year, it has secured seed funding from private investors. Both rounds generated a cumulative $150 million and now has the backing of major investment firms Third Rock Ventures, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sirona Capital, Nextech, and Cormorant Asset Management.
Synnovation Therapeutics is planning to hire 44 new employees by 2026, bringing the total employment base to more than 70 high-tech employees. These jobs would “further advance its innovative research and development activities and support the continued growth of the biopharmaceutical industry in the state,” according to applications filed with the Division of Small Business.
All of the jobs are categorized as professional and managerial, though the exact roles and salary figures were not made clear - that part of the application was redacted.
To support the hiring for these positions, the state’s job investment board, the Council on Development Finance (CDF), approved Monday a grant from the taxpayer-backed Strategic Fund worth $438,020.
What resonated more with those on the CDF is that Synnovation Therapeutics’ leadership team also played a key role in Incyte’s rise in the Delaware life science scene. Wenqing Yao, the company’s founder and CEO, worked at Incyte for 19 years and eventually was its executive vice president and head of discovery and chemistry.
Like Prelude Therapeutics founder and CEO Kris Vaddi, Yao and others at Synnovation Therapeutics were part of the team that developed Jakafi, Incyte’s blockbuster drug that treats blood cancers. Jakafi generated $2.7 billion in revenue as of 2023.
Paul Trower, another former Incyte executive and an accounting consultant for Synnovation, drew more comparisons between Prelude and Incyte from the early days, and noted that Synnovation has the potential to also build on the state’s legacy in innovation.
“For many years, Incyte had operated in the Experimental Station that Synnovation calls home, so setting up shop there was very much like going back to the early days of Incyte,” Trower said. “The goal of building an innovative new company that improves patient outcomes will also continue the growth of Delaware’s bioscience ecosystem in the greater Wilmington area.”
Like many start-up bioscience companies, Synnovation Therapeutics has to contend with spending millions of dollars on research and development before having a drug treatment go to market. Prelude Therapeutics was approved to
receive $2.6 million early last year, a rare move as the funds paid out of the Strategic Grant Fund typically work as reimbursements after the company has made the investment first.
Synnovation has spent millions of dollars in research and development, according to those on CDF. The company ended 2024 with $37 million in available cash, in addition to potential funds through Series A fundraising rounds to raise that to $103 million.
“Biotech is always living on investment. It’s tough to raise money, but if your folks deliver on the product, the money always gives you the perspective of a second project,” Yao told CDF.
In March, the start-up launched clinical trials for SNV1521 to treat solid tumors with the PARP1 enzyme, which helps DNA repair damage but also can allow cancer cells to survive. This treatment is looking to target breast and ovarian cancers with homologous recombination deficiency, or a condition where the cells lose the ability to repair DNA. Half the women with advanced
high grade serous ovarian cancer have this condition.