Lianbio Co. Ltd. has inked a $200 million deal with Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Inc. for greater China rights to the phase IIb/III-stage candidate, TP-03 (lotilaner ophthalmic solution, 0.25%), designed to treat Demodex blepharitis and Meibomian gland disease (MGD). Lianbio will pay $15 million up front and up to $185 million in development and commercialization milestones.

At the end of March, JAMA Ophthalmology’s publication of first results from the NIH-sponsored, 328-patient trial with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s VEGF inhibitor, Eylea (aflibercept), in non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy bolstered investor hopes for wider use. But competitors loom for the compound, first approved in November 2011 for wet age-related macular degeneration.

RNA therapy developer Proqr Therapeutics NV’s phase I/II study of adults with Usher syndrome and non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa met all its key objectives, prompting the company to plan two parallel pivotal phase II/III studies that could start by year-end. The company wasted no time as it has already discussed next steps with the FDA to support the therapy’s registration “as soon as possible,” Aniz Girach, Proqr’s chief medical officer, told investors during a March 24 investor call.