Opthea Ltd. has secured nondilutive funding to complete phase III development and commence commercialization of its wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) treatment OPT-302, in a $170 million agreement with Launch Therapeutics, an operating company set up earlier this year by the private equity group Carlyle to manage biotech investments. Under the terms of the deal, Launch will now commit $120 million in three instalments at fixed time points, with an option to invest a further $50 million.

Shanghai Aitrox Technology Co. Ltd. (Fosun Aitrox) completed strategic financing of over ¥100 million (US$14.8 million) to develop its pipelines in artificial intelligence (AI)-aided diagnosis platforms. This financing was led by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. and Sinopharm-CICC (Shanghai) Private Equity Investment Management Co. Ltd.

Investors are backing Levita Magnetics International Corp. with $26 million to advance its new Magnetic-Assisted Robotic Surgery (MARS) platform. The series C financing round was led by Ballast Capital, with participation from Medtex Ventures, Invermaster and Carao Ventures. The new platform builds on the company’s first commercial device, the Levita Magnetic Surgical system which received U.S. FDA approval in 2015. The system enables reduced-port laparoscopic surgical procedures and consists of an external magnet that is placed on the skin and controls a magnetic grasper inside the abdomen during surgery.

Glubio Therapeutics Inc. has raised $22 million in a series A+ round to support the development of its targeted protein degradation drugs. With the investment, Glubio expects to file INDs for two molecular glue degraders for hematological malignancies in early 2023 in both China and the U.S.