Forbion, a venture capital firm, led a $170m Series B round in Beacon Therapeutics, an ophthalmic gene therapy company, with participation from Syncona, Oxford Science Enterprises, TCGX and Advent Life Sciences. “Beacon has secured a high-quality syndicate of investors to support the ongoing development of its lead clinical candidate AGTC-501 and broader pipeline. The strength and calibre of this global group of life science investors provides important external validation of Beacon’s technology and progress to date. We have leveraged our expertise and network to support Beacon thus far, from identifying the opportunity to acquire a late-stage asset in AGTC, to supporting this financing today. We look forward to continuing to work closely with the company and our syndicate partners to advance its solutions for debilitating blinding retinal diseases through the clinic and towards patients," Elisa Petris, Syncona Investment Management Lead Partner.