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.
In a deal worth up to $108 million, ophthalmic startup Eluminex Biosciences Ltd. has licensed the global rights to Fibrogen Inc.’s biosynthetic cornea derived from recombinant human collagen (RHC) type III intended to tackle corneal blindness.
Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced results from a pivotal trial of its therapy for Demodex blepharitis, which could lead to an FDA filing to treat the common eye disease for which there are no FDA-approved medications.
Lenz Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth mode with $47 million in series A financing to fund its mission to bring a drug therapy to bear on farsightedness, a problem that affects much of humanity, at one point or another.
Biogen Inc. has announced contrasting results from phase III trials of therapies for a rare eye disease and depression, following last week’s controversial FDA approval of Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm. The Cambridge, Mass.-based firm said a phase III gene therapy study in the rare retinal disease choroideremia missed its primary and secondary endpoints, although the news was better from a potential therapy for major depressive disorder.
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.
Less than a year after Novartis AG's acquisition of optogenetics specialist Vedere Bio Inc., its successor Vedere Bio II Inc. is launching with $77 million in series A financing, led by Octagon Capital. The company will develop earlier-stage assets than those Novartis purchased, including new, mutation-agnostic optogenetics technology to improve upon current gene therapies aimed at restoring functional vision to people with vision loss due to photoreceptor death.
Little more than two years ago, Biogen Inc. plunked down about $800 million for gene therapy developer Nightstar Therapeutics plc, which had an X-linked retinitis pigmentosa drug in its pipeline. Top-line results from the phase II/III Xirius study of cotoretigene toliparvovec (BIIB-112), administered by subretinal injection, show the one-time therapy missed its primary endpoint of producing a statistically significant improvement in the proportion of treated study eyes.
LONDON – A year on from delivering positive phase IIb data, Oculis SA has raised $57 million in an oversubscribed series C, to take OCS-01, a topical nanoparticle formulation of dexamethasone, through two phase III trials.
Lexington, Mass.-based Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc.’s phase III win in the study called Invigorate with reproxalap for allergic conjunctivitis (AC) restarted speculation about odds of the drug, a small-molecule, immune-modulating covalent inhibitor of reactive aldehyde species (RASP), to treat dry eye disease (DED). “I do think there is potential read-through,” CEO Todd Brady said, especially with regard to the redness endpoint. A six-week safety study necessary before going to the FDA has not yet started, he told investors during a conference call. “That will require some discussions with the FDA, but I do not think, given the length of the trial, the safety study would impair our guidance of potentially filing NDAs by the end of this year.”
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