Character Biosciences Raises $93M to Advance Vision Loss Treatments

Character Biosciences, a biotechnology startup focused on developing treatments for vision loss, has secured $93 million in Series B funding. The company, formerly known as Clover Therapeutics, aims to bring two advanced programs into clinical testing this year, targeting age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and its advanced stage, geographic atrophy.

New Approaches to AMD Treatment

Character's lead candidate, CTX114, is designed to treat geographic atrophy, a condition for which there are currently two marketed drugs: Apellis Pharmaceuticals' Syfovre and Astellas Pharma's Izervay. While these existing treatments can slow the growth of eye lesions associated with geographic atrophy, they have not definitively shown to preserve vision and, in rare cases, have been linked to severe side effects.

CTX114 takes a novel approach to targeting the complement system, an arm of the body's immune defense. According to Cheng Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Character Biosciences, the drug mimics the function of a protein that regulates complement system activation, which malfunctions in AMD. Preclinical studies suggest this approach may be more effective, though human trials are still pending.

The company's second program, CTX203, targets patients with "intermediate" AMD who are not typically treated. This drug aims to stabilize the expression of ABCA1, a protein involved in lipid transport by retinal cells. Lower levels of ABCA1 are associated with abnormal lipid buildup that can lead to AMD progression.

Addressing Challenges in AMD Drug Development

Zhang highlighted the difficulties in developing treatments for dry AMD, which affects the majority of the estimated 200 million people worldwide with the disease. The heterogeneity of AMD and its varied progression have made clinical trial design challenging. To address this, Character has amassed a significant amount of AMD patient data to inform drug design and patient selection for clinical trials.

"What gives us comfort is that we have mapped out those challenges, we have a deeper understanding of how we might mitigate those risks," Zhang stated. "We can subtype patients, understand those patients who are more likely to respond to our therapy, and have a drug that has more applications in the first place."

Investment and Collaboration Details

The Series B round was led by aMoon and Luma Group, with participation from Bausch + Lomb, Jefferson Life Sciences, and four other investors. This latest funding brings Character's total raised capital to $121 million, including a previous $28 million round.

In addition to the investment, Bausch + Lomb announced a collaboration with Character Biosciences in January, further strengthening the startup's position in the ophthalmology space.

Jamie Kasuboski, a partner and head of research at Luma Group, expressed enthusiasm for Character's approach: "Character's patient-first approach is unique in its ability to identify those who are most likely to benefit from therapy, and we look forward to seeing the clinical impact of this approach with the use of proceeds from this financing."