Cell therapy cutting-edge completes $120 million in financing, focusing on eye diseases

On April 12, clinical-stage biotech company Aurion Biotech announced the completion of a $120 million financing round

Corneal edema secondary to endothelial dysfunction is a serious ocular disease

Headquartered in Seattle, Boston and Tokyo, Aurion Biotech aims to restore sight to millions of patients through life-changing regenerative therapies

Early clinical studies in Japan and subsequent dose-ranging and confirmatory clinical trials successfully demonstrated the safety, efficacy and tolerability of this lead product candidate

Related studies also support significant potential benefits of this therapy in patients with corneal edema secondary to endothelial dysfunction:

1) Abundant supply of corneal endothelial cells: Healthy cells from donor corneas are cultured in a novel, multi-step, patented process

2) Simple operation: As a simple injection method, this cell therapy is simpler and easier to operate than corneal cell transplantation;

3) Patient-friendly: Recovery after cell therapy takes only a few hours, while recovery after corneal transplantation takes days

The Aurion team is preparing to submit an NDA to the PMDA in Japan; in the US, they are preparing to submit an IND to initiate clinical trials; and in the EU, they are working on other clinical development plans

Aurion pipeline situation (source: company official website)

Greg Kunst, CEO of Aurion, said: "This financing underscores the potential of our developed cell therapies to transform the lives of millions of patients with corneal endothelial dysfunction

References:

1# Aurion Biotech Raises $120 Million from Deerfield Management, Petrichor, Flying LPartners, Falcon Vision/KKR, and Visionary Ventures (Source: Aurion official website)

2# Shigeru Kinoshita et al.