Syntaxin Ltd is a biopharmaceutical company that engineers and develops bacterial-based protein therapeutics for the treatment of neurological, respiratory and metabolic diseases. The biopharmaceutical company's proprietary technology platform enables the engineering of bacterial proteins by domain substitution, to produce novel cell-specific biotherapeutics that inhibit cell secretion. These products can have therapeutic effects in a wide range of indications, including metabolic diseases (hormone secretion), respiratory diseases (mucus secretion), pain and other neurological diseases (neurotransmission).
Syntaxin was founded in November 2005 as a biopharmaceutical company as a spin out from the UK Health Protection Agency, following a £6 million series A financing by Abingworth Management Ltd, a leading healthcare venture firm.
Series B financing of £16m was finalised in October 2007. The fundraising round was co-led by new investors SR One, the venture capital arm of GSK, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, and LSP (Life Science Partners) with additional funds from Syntaxin's existing shareholders, Abingworth. New investors Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) and Quest for Growth also participated in the financing.