Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Eamonn Hobbs- Founder, President & CEO of Syncromune at BIO Boston 2025

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Eamonn Hobbs- Founder, President & CEO of Syncromune at BIO Boston 2025 · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:04
  So we're here in bio and I'm here with Eamon Hobbs from Sync
• 0:08
  Commune. We're going to talk about what
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  they've been up to, what they're doing and how they've managed to
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  achieve success in what is really tough market at the
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  moment. So nice to have you Eamon.
• 0:19
  Nice to. Have you?
• 0:19
  Pleasure to meet you. Nice to.
• 0:20
  Meet you, Max. Yeah, to.
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  Be here. Maybe just give us a bit of
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  context about who you are and and how you came to found Sync
• 0:26
  Commune. I'm the Co founder and CEO of
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  Sync Commune I I'm a biomedical engineer by training serial
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  entrepreneur. I've taken I've been a public
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  company CEO three times and taken a couple of companies over
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  a billion market cap. So not a spring chicken that's
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  for sure. Been around a long time.
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  Started Synchromine in 2020 based on some anecdotal clinical
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  data that suggested that there was a tremendous potential for
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  potentially curative benefits in a brand new platform for
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  immunotherapies. So that evolved into what we
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  call SYNC T which is really a an acronym for synchronized T cell
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  activation education and we're trying to generate a
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  personalized insight to T cell mediated immune response for all
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  solid tumor cancers. Our LEAD program is metastatic
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  cancer resistant prostate cancer and we just released our phase
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  one data at ASCO a few. Weeks ago.
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  Amazing it. Is the data is amazing and we
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  had a overall response rate of 87%, a complete response rate of
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  53% and we're seeing those responses be durable.
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  Now these are in very late stage high disease burden patients
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  that are are basically Hospice bound and getting complete and
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  durable responses is, you know, as one clinician put it after
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  hearing the talk, congratulations.
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  Who found the Holy Grail? We're we're we're super stoked.
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  We have, we are expanding into other solid tumor cancers in a
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  legal expansion program next year and in our lead program in
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  prostate cancer, we're enrolling patients in our phase two trial.
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  Yeah, which is a multi centre US trial and I look forward to
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  moving that along and completing that by middle of next year.
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  Yeah, it's unbelievable. I think we were just talking
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  about this, just how tough the market is, how seeing companies
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  like you guys popping through is becoming rarer.
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  What what's it been like for you in this current market?
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  Well, the. The as I'm sure you've heard,
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  the market's never been tougher. It's is a combination of a lot
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  of factors, but and we both, you know, those of us that have been
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  around a long time have lived through a lot of cycles and this
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  is a cycle, but we're still, we're still not out of it.
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  We we just closed $100 million Series A.
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  Congratulations. Thank you.
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  Thank you. And that we won a few $100
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  million Series A's of 2024 closed in December.
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  And the, the secret is great data.
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  We, we attracted a lot of great investors.
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  But the Series A was driven by TWG Global, which is a relative
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  new name in, in healthcare investing, but have been very,
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  very successful in, in other industries.
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  And we're we're their second healthcare investment and
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  they've been a joy to work with so far.
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  I look forward to continuing. That, yeah.
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  What do you think it is that sets you apart from other
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  investment opportunities? Well, you know, data, data,
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  data. Yeah, it.
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  All it all comes down to data. In our business.
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  This kind of immune response data is built on the back of a
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  tremendous amount of, of work that started with the the Nobel
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  Prize winning efforts to develop anti checkpoint inhibitors, anti
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  CTLE for anti PD one. And we've we've taken that first
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  generation of applying those in systemic therapies and actually
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  created a third generation. The second generation was taking
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  multiple checkpoint inhibitors and combining them and providing
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  them systemically. But that's that's very limited
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  practically by toxicities. We came up with a whole new
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  platform which is a third generation immunotherapy that's
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  associated with local delivery. So it's delivered local
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  regionally into the target. A target tumor can be a primary
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  or a MET and how it's delivered. First I should say it's a four
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  API 33 checkpoint inhibitors and an oligonucleotides.
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  So it's a very complex drug that's a single drug with four
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  APIs that's infused local, regionally.
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  The first step is to place a, a proprietary device, a needle
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  that creates a zone of oncolysis.
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  It actually liquefies a small part of the tumor, releasing all
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  the cellular contents, which includes the tumor antigens,
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  right, which the immune system can then use and interact with
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  to, to hopefully educate and activate T cells.
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  And then through that same needle, we infuse our drugs.
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  So the drug infusion mixes with the cellular debris in the
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  oncolytic zone. And that cellular debris is
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  carried away by the flow of the drug through the lymphatics into
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  the draining lymph nodes, where the draining lymph nodes usually
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  contain the highest concentrations of immune system
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  cells. So we've effectively
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  synchronized the location of the three things you need for a A
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  activated educated T cell and that is the immune system cells,
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  the antigen presenting cells and the T cells, the antigens and
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  the drug to be highly immunostimulatory while
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  defeating immunosuppression. So hence Sync T for the
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  technology name and Synchro immune for the company name.
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  So really, really a a very, very interesting evolution of which
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  started with with the discovery of checkpoint inhibitors.
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  I think it's amazing and I think what you guys are achieving in
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  this market, it's pretty amazing.
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  Obviously technology sets you aside in that respect, but also
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  the people alongside you as well, right?
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  Oh absolutely. It takes a village and we, we,
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  we have an amazing team. I'm honoured to be leading.
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  It's not only do we have an amazing drug development team
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  which has all the usual bits and pieces, but we have some amazing
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  formulation chemists because we're we're creating a four
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  molecule drug in a stable aqueous formulation.
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  Plus we have a device development program.
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  So we have device experts and procedural expertise because the
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  drugging device are used in a in a procedure that's an outpatient
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  based minimally invasive image guided procedure done under
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  conscious sedation. So every decision we make is a
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  Venn diagram of drug, device and procedure.
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  And in the middle is the therapy.
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  Yeah. So it it, it's a big team and
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  really incredibly gifted, passionate.
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  People, no, I love that. And we talked about like the
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  market being pretty tough. What advice would you give to
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  companies potentially struggling but also just people trying to
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  make their way? Well, having having been around
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  a long, long time, patience is necessary because sooner or
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  later the market will improve. It always does.
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  No one knows when I wish I did, but we've been in, we've been in
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  a really tough market now for, for quite a while.
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  So we're due by any measure. So first patient, second, figure
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  out how to generate the data. Getting, getting clinical data
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  is is always incredibly valuable.
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  Yeah, obviously good clinical data.
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  And then surround yourself with incredibly talented people and
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  give them the tools they need to to do what they do so well.
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  Yeah. And then pray a lot.
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  I mean, that's true, actually. Yeah.
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  I mean, that's a really good place to leave it as well.
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  But thanks so much for coming on.
• 9:05
  Amen. It's a pleasure to meet you.
• 9:06
  Yeah, pray a lot.