VCs gain exit as AbbVie buys UCB neuro spinout Syndesi

AbbVie’s purchase of Belgian neuroscience company Syndesi for $130 million up front will allow a VC syndicate to realize an exit about four years after the group facilitated the biotech’s spinout from UCB.

The deal gives AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) clinical SV2A modulator SDI-118, which began a Phase I study in October to treat elderly patients with cognitive decline. The molecule had completed three other Phase I trials that yielded data about target engagement and biomarker measurements...