Regulators in America made history just over a month ago. They approved a new drug that, for the first time, uses leukaemia patients’ own cells to fight cancer. The drug, Kymriah, comes with a hefty price tag: $475,000 (£355,000) per course.
Novartis’s innovative treatment is one of a wave of drugs promising to revolutionise medicine. Syncona, an investment firm that joined the stock market last year, has a growing presence in this sector.
A rare beast on the FTSE, it is both a fund of funds and a direct investor in promising biotech companies. Syncona joined the market when it reversed into the investment fund BACIT with backing from the Wellcome Trust, which has a 37% stake.
Syncona is run by Martin Murphy, a former