Syros Pharmaceuticals closed a $60 million senior secured loan facility with Oxford Finance, a specialty finance firm providing senior debt to life sciences and healthcare service companies.

“The initial $20 million tranche of this financing extends our expected cash runway into 2022, beyond key planned clinical data readouts for SY-1425 and SY-5609 in multiple cancer patient populations,” said Joseph Ferra, Syros’ CFO.

“By providing access to additional capital, this facility also increases our financial flexibility as we continue to advance our clinical programs and earlier-stage pipeline with the aim of bringing small-molecule medicines to market that provide a profound benefit for patients with cancer and monogenic diseases.”

The non-dilutive financing agreement provides Syros with up to $60 million in borrowing capacity in three tranches, with the initial tranche of $20 million available immediately. Syros is required to make monthly interest-only payments on each tranche prior to the amortization date of March 1, 2023. The debt facility will mature on February 1, 2025.

Based on its unique ability to elucidate regulatory regions of the genome, Syros aims to develop medicines that provide a profound benefit for patients with diseases that have eluded other genomics-based approaches.