Oculis raises CHF20 million and moves to Switzerland

The financing was led by a syndicate of leading international life science investors including Novartis Venture Fund, Pivotal bioVenture Partners and Bay City Capital, a US VC with Offices in Basel. Existing investors, including Brunnur Ventures and Silfurberg, also participated in the financing.

The funds will be used to advance the clinical development of Oculis' lead program OC-118, a proprietary topical product currently in a Phase IIb clinical trial for the treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), the leading cause of blindness in young adults in developed countries. In prior pilot studies, OC-118 demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement of visual acuity and reduction of central macular thickness of DME patients.

In addition to the Phase IIb DME program, Oculis is advancing OC-118 in other ophthalmic indications and is developing other drug candidates using SNP technology to the clinical stage. The Series B financing will allow further development of these candidates.

In conjunction with the financing, Oculis is re-locating its corporate headquarters to Lausanne, Switzerland, while its R&D remains in Reykjavik, Iceland. Dr. Riad Sherif, formerly Area President Europe, Middle East & Africa at Alcon and formerly a senior executive at Novartis, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Oculis. Dr. Sabri Markabi, previously Senior VP, Head of R&D and Chief Medical Officer at Alcon, will join as Chief Scientific Officer, and the Company’s founders, Prof. Einar Stefánsson and Prof. Thorsteinn Loftsson becoming Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Research and Technology Officer, respectively. Florent Gros (Novartis Venture Fund) will be joining the Board as Chairman, in addition of Arni Blöndal (Brunnur Ventures) and Stefan J. Sveinsson (formerly Global EVP RD at Actavis), Lionel Carnot (Bay City Capital) and Rob Hopfner (Pivotal Bioventure Partners).

Commenting on Oculis’ future, Dr. Riad Sherif, CEO of Oculis, stated: “I am extremely pleased to be joining such a great team to develop what could be the next generation of ophthalmic treatments. Oculis founders have meticulously developed the novel SNP technology that improves both the ability to formulate drugs as eye drops and their bioavailability in eye tissues including the posterior segment. This technology opens a new era of breakthrough ophthalmic therapies that could provide important benefits to patients. Our goal with the lead program OC-118 is truly to transform the way DME is treated and managed today.”

Florent Gros, chairman of Oculis’ board of directors, and Managing Director at Novartis Venture Fund, said: “Considering both the lead clinical program and the breadth and depth of possible applications, the commercial potential of Oculis is clearly very exciting.”

Prof. Einar Stefánsson, MD PhD, Chief Innovation Officer and co-founder of Oculis commented: “We are transforming eye drop technology and improving drug delivery to all parts of the eye. Treating retinal diseases with eye drops instead of injecting the eye with a needle provides comfortable and accessible treatment options for potentially tens of millions of patients with retinal disease.”

OC-118 has been developed using Oculis’ novel Solubilizing Nanoparticle (SNP) technology platform, which improves both the ability to formulate drugs as eye drops and their bioavailability in the eye tissues including anterior and posterior segments. Existing pre-clinical and clinical data suggest that the SNP technology can open the way for formulating drugs as effective and well-tolerated topical treatments of retinal conditions with unmet need, including DME. Significant improvement of tolerability and dosing frequency for anterior segment conditions may also be expected.

(Press release)