Solvonis Therapeutics PLC (LSE:SVNS) CEO Anthony Tennyson talked with Proactive about the company’s latest £1.25 million fundraise and its expanding focus on central nervous system (CNS) drug development.
Tennyson said the new capital—raised from strategic and institutional investors—brings Solvonis’s total fundraising since May to £4.25 million. These funds will support the acceleration of its CNS discovery programme, which he described as “the innovation engine that drives long-term value creation for Solvonis Therapeutics PLC.”
The company is building a platform centred on addiction, psychiatry, and neurology, with a particular focus on high-burden, poorly treated diseases. Solvonis already has an advanced clinical programme for severe alcohol use disorder (SVN-001), targeting the UK and EU markets. A phase 2b trial is also planned for SVN-002, aimed at moderate to severe alcohol use disorder in the U.S.
Looking ahead, Tennyson outlined a three-tiered value strategy, covering near-, medium-, and long-term milestones. He said the company follows a lean, capital-efficient model, working with CROs and academic groups to advance its assets to key inflexion points for potential out-licensing to larger pharmaceutical partners.
“Our business model is focused on progressing our assets to the appropriate inflexion point and then seeking to end-licence those,” Tennyson explained.
Proactive: Anthony, very good to speak with you. You've announced today that you're raising £1.25 million, which is focused on advancing your CNS discovery programme. Could you explain how this complements your clinical pipeline and what milestones investors should watch out for next?
Anthony Tennyson: Good to talk to you and your audience again, Stephen. We're really pleased. Today we announced that we've raised £1.25 million from existing strategic and institutional investors. That brings the total to £4.25 million we've raised since May of this year. That shows real confidence in the business. This capital, in addition to resources on hand, will be deployed to accelerate our preclinical CNS discovery programme.
It's the innovation engine that drives long-term value creation for Solvonis Therapeutics PLC. We're building a CNS platform focused on addressing high-burden, poorly treated CNS disorders. We currently have an advanced clinical-stage programme focused on alcohol use disorder. Our CNS programme builds on known mechanisms of action and helps us discover new novel molecules, which supports longer-term value creation.
All in all, it gives us a deep and balanced pipeline with near-, medium-, and longer-term value creation opportunities. For shareholders, near-term milestones include progressing our lead programme, SVN-001, targeting severe alcohol use disorder in the UK and EU. Medium-term, we plan to move into a phase 2b programme for SVN-002, targeting moderate to severe alcohol use disorder in the U.S. Longer-term, the CNS discovery programme supports future value as those preclinical molecules advance.
Proactive: Solvonis uses a capital-efficient, licensing-first model to advance its CNS therapeutics. Can you walk us through how that approach drives value for shareholders and accelerates development across your pipeline?
Anthony Tennyson: Yes, happy to do so. We operate a lean business model. We partner with leading clinical contract research organisations and academic groups. This allows us to be disciplined with capital deployment. For a biotech like ours, value comes from generating data, not fixed overheads.
So we focus capital on generating data. Our model advances assets to an inflexion point and then seeks to out-license them to larger pharmaceutical companies. This ensures we are strict in our use of capital and can generate near-, medium-, and long-term value for shareholders.
Proactive: You're building a pipeline that spans addiction, psychiatry, and neurology. What's the long-term vision for the company, and how do you see that evolving over the next 12 to 24 months?
Anthony Tennyson: Great question. Our vision and plan is to build a biopharma company focused on CNS small molecules that cross the blood-brain barrier. We're building that company across three pillars: addiction, psychiatry, and neurology. We’re focused on high-burden, poorly treated diseases in those areas.
Today, our focus is on alcohol use disorder in addiction and PTSD in psychiatry. Over the next 12 to 24 months, we plan to deepen those areas and explore opportunities in neurology. We believe this strategy creates value for shareholders by innovating in disease classes that have lacked attention for decades.
Proactive: Anthony, I hope you'll continue to keep us updated with your progress on that. Thank you very much for speaking with us today.