U.K. biotech Complement Therapeutics Ltd has come out of stealth mode with €5 million ($5.7 million) in seed funding to tackle complement-related diseases, initially targeting the currently untreatable condition geographic atrophy due to dry age-related macular degeneration.
LONDON – The team that opened up the market for anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs in the treatment of eye diseases has formed a new company, Eyebio Ltd., with the aim of developing a new generation of ocular therapies. David Guyer and Anthony Adamis, founders of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc., which brought Macugen (pegaptanib sodium) through to FDA approval in December 2004, set up Eyebio in August last year, with seed funding from SV Health Investors.
Lumithera Inc. will acquire Diopsys Inc. for an undisclosed amount in an all-stock transaction expected to close in the next few months. The deal has been approved by shareholders of both companies. Together, they plan to form a theranostic company that can provide a continuum of care for patients with age-related macular degeneration and other degenerative ocular diseases or injury.
Alcon AG plans to acquire Ivantis Inc. for $475 million at closing, regaining a significant position in the lucrative minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) space through the addition of the Hydrus microstent device to its ophthalmology portfolio. In addition to the up-front payment, the deal includes additional unspecified contingent payments dependent on achievement of certain milestones. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
LONDON – Intellia Therapeutics Inc. is to receive 10% of the equity in Sparingvision SAS as part of a deal giving the French ophthalmology specialist certain exclusive rights to in vivo CRISPR/Cas9 technologies in the treatment of ocular diseases.
Intergalactic Therapeutics Inc. is aiming for the stars with a nonviral gene therapy platform, backed with $75 million in series A financing from life sciences venture capital firm Apple Tree Partners. While management are tongue in cheek about the name of the company, they are serious about their mission to produce a next generation of gene therapies that overcome the issues associated with marketed adeno-associated virus-based products.
DUBLIN – Coave Therapeutics unveiled a new identity and a new gene therapy platform, as it closed a €21.2 million (US$25 million) extension to its long-running series B round, which takes the total raise to €33 million.
Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc. is banking $20 million up front and could receive up to $1.4 billion more in preclinical, clinical and commercial milestones from a multi-program collaboration and license agreement in respiratory disease and ophthalmology with Genentech.
PERTH, Australia – Sydney-based Azura Ophthalmics Ltd. has moved into a registration trial following positive phase II results for lead candidate AZR-MD-001 in Meibomian gland dysfunction, the leading cause of dry eye disease.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology see a future where long-lasting hydrogel injections replace eye drops and surgery in the management of glaucoma, the most common cause of irreversible blindness in the world. The treatment would be delivered every six months, in line with glaucoma patients’ regularly scheduled visits to the ophthalmologist.
