China-based Syneron Bio has closed a USD 150 million Series B financing round to advance its platform for discovering macrocyclic peptide drugs. The round was jointly led by an unnamed international biotech fund, Decheng Capital, and CDH Investments, with participation from other global investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Temasek Holdings subsidiary True Light Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and BioTrack Capital. Existing investors, including AstraZeneca, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sinovation Ventures, 5Y Capital, GL Ventures, Biotech Development Fund, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, and Pfizer Venture Investments, also participated in the round.

Proceeds will be used to enhance the company's proprietary Synova discovery platform and advance its pipeline of drug candidates in oncology, autoimmune, metabolic, and rare diseases. The Synova platform is designed to accelerate the discovery and optimisation of macrocyclic peptides, a class of molecules that can combine the specificity of biologics with the stability of small molecules. The funding will support the transition of multiple programs into clinical development, aiming to address significant unmet medical needs across various therapeutic areas.

According to PharmCube's NextBiopharm® database, last year Syneron struck the largest macrocyclic peptide partnership with a Big Pharma company, closing a deal worth up to USD 3.5 billion with AstraZeneca. Click here to request a free trial for NextBiopharm®.