The pharma start-up Synklino joins BioInnovation Institute in the Creation House program. The company is one of the three start-ups in this round that are funded with up to DKK 10M each and the team has already begun their work at BII.

The start-up is founded by Professor in Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen, Mette M. Rosenkilde, Ph.d. in Protein Crystallography, Mads G. Jeppesen, and life science entrepreneur Thomas N. Kledal, who is the company CEO and former head of Life Science & Bioengineering Innovation at DTU, Technical University of Denmark.

Since 2017 the team has worked on finding a better way to help organ or stem cell transplant recipients recover from transplantation, by developing a cure for frequent CMV infections otherwise causing increased mortality, prolonged hospitalization and poor transplantation outcome.

“Patients are infected when they are recovering from the tough procedure a transplant is. It causes increased morbidity, 30 percent longer hospitalization and it raises mortality rates.”, explains Thomas N. Kledal.

Treatment prior to transplant
The CMV virus is a herpes virus that the patients carry both lytic and latently, but Synklino’s drug candidate SYNx has shown to kill both kinds of infected cells fast and effectively. The treatment that is currently available targets the cells after the patients have had the transplant, but Synklino has discovered a method to remove the virus before it becomes a problem by treating organs in the incubation period prior to the transplant.

“The technology is first in class and represents the new generation of anti-infectives that have the potential to make a significant impact in improving transplant patient care. Furthermore, Thomas Kledal brings with him extensive commercial experience that will benefit not just Synklino but also the BII community, so we are very pleased to welcome them to the Creation House program”, says Giles Dudley, senior business developer at BII who will be working with the start-up.

During the 18-month long program, Thomas N. Kledal expects to benefit not only from the funding but also the access to facilities at BioInnovation Institute.

“The environment at BII is equally important for us in order to move forward and we expect to attract more funding to get started on our GMP work and toxicology work in the coming 18 months.”, he says.

To learn more and get in touch with Synklino, click here.

Interested in joining the Creation House program? Read more and apply now.

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