EyeBio Announces Expansion of Series A to $130 Million to Advance Development of Restoret for Retinal Diseases
Eyebiotech announced the successful close of an extension to its Series A financing, bringing the total raised to date to $130 million. EyeBio will use the proceeds from the funding to accelerate the company’s clinical development program and further build out its retina pipeline.
New investors Bain Capital Life Sciences, Omega Funds, and Vertex Ventures HC joined the financing round, which included participation from existing investors SV Health Investors, Jeito Capital, Samsara Biocapital and MRL Ventures Fund.
“We are extremely excited about the potential of our pipeline and progress to date,” David Guyer, MD, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of EyeBio, said in a company news release. “The expansion of our Series A round in the current fundraising environment speaks to our investors’ enthusiasm for what the EyeBio team is accomplishing. We’re very fortunate to have the caliber of investors and board members that we do, and adding the resources and expertise of Bain Capital Life Sciences, Omega, and Vertex Ventures HC will enable us to deliver on the promise of EyeBio’s pipeline as quickly as possible.”
In addition to the Series A expansion, EyeBio announced the completion of enrollment into the multiple ascending dose (MAD) portion of AMARONE, the phase 1b/2a clinical trial of Restoret in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) and wet age related macular degeneration (AMD). Restoret is an investigational, intravitreally delivered, tri-specific antibody that acts as an agonist of the Wnt signaling pathway. It is designed to resolve residual fluid in the retina with the goal of improving visual acuity in individuals with wet AMD and DME, as well as other retinal diseases of permeability.
“Completion of Part 1 of the AMARONE trial is a major achievement for EyeBio and represents a significant milestone in our effort to bring innovative therapies to patients with retinal diseases,” said Tony Adamis, MD, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of EyeBio. “We hear constantly from retinal physicians about the need to drive better outcomes for their patients and the demand for novel approaches to treating serious retinal diseases. Restoret may be one such approach. It’s a first-in-class Wnt pathway agonist antibody that we hope can improve the outcomes and lives of patients with diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration.”