Oculis closes US$57 million Series C financing

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07.05.2021
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Headquartered in Lausanne, Oculis is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative ophthalmic treatments. Proceeds from the round will be used to advance late-stage drugs OCS1 and OCS2 as well as to expand the pipeline.

The oversubscribed round was co-led by new investors BVCF Management and Hyfinity Investments, with VI Partners and Wille AG joining the company’s existing investors, Bay City Capital, Brunnur Ventures, EarlyBird, funds managed by Tekla Capital Management, Pivotal bioVenture Partners, Nan Fung Life Sciences, Novartis Venture Fund, Silfurberg, as well as other existing investors. This excellent syndication further broadens Oculis’ strong shareholder base of leading life sciences investors from the US, China and Europe.

Oculis has a robust and expansive development portfolio including late-stage novel topical (eye drop) treatments, which are non-invasive and represent an unprecedented technical advance for patients with retinal edema and front-of-the-eye diseases. In addition, Oculis’ formulation discovery and innovation capabilities enable the development of a pipeline of topical drugs targeting sight-threatening eye diseases that affect both the anterior and posterior segments of the eye. 

Proceeds from this financing will accelerate Oculis’ strategy. The targeted milestones cover the development of novel topical therapies for ophthalmic diseases targeting the retina and anterior segment with high unmet needs, including advancing Oculis’ late-stage transformative topical Ophthalmic portfolio. The concrete goals are:

  • Move OCS-01 into Phase 3 trials in Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and complete registration studies in the treatment of Inflammation and Pain following Ocular Surgery. Phase 2 results in DME presented in 2020 showed efficacy and safety of OCS-01, and the first Phase 3 study is scheduled to commence during the second quarter 2021. This groundbreaking therapy is designed and well positioned to become the first topical treatment for retinal edema.
  • Advance OCS-02 into Phase 2b trials targeting Dry Eye Disease (DED) and Chronic Anterior Uveitis as a steroid-sparing treatment. OCS-02 is a novel topical anti-TNF alpha antibody fragment, which has demonstrated efficacy and safety in two clinical proof of concept studies in moderate-to-severe DED and Acute Anterior Uveitis. A novel gene variant identified during a previous trial in highly responding DED patients may enable OCS-02 to become the first personalized therapeutic in Severe DED.

In addition Oculis plans to expand the pipeline of innovative ophthalmology candidates using Oculis’ proprietary formulation discovery platform and to execute the company’s international strategy.

In conjunction with the closing, Vanessa Huang, General Partner at BVCF Management, and Sylvia He, Managing Partner at Hyfinity Investments are joining the Oculis Board of Directors while David Weber and Thorsteinn Loftsson are stepping down. 

Zhi Yang, Managing Partner at BVCF Management, said: “Oculis’ innovative science and transformative topical approach to address sight-threatening diseases have the potential to significantly extend the reach of such therapies to larger numbers of patients, improving accessibility and compliance and ultimately clinical outcomes. This unrivalled potential, the strength of the international team at Oculis, and growing unmet medical needs in major key markets around the world are the key factors behind the decision by BVCF and our fellow investors to participate in this new financing round.” 

(Press release / SK)

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