EyeCyte, Inc. Secures Series A Funding from Pfizer
Business Wire, June 23, 2008
* “New paradigm” of drug development, combining efforts of the National Institutes of Health and The Scripps Research Institute with leading translational biotech and pharmaceutical companies EyeCyte and Pfizer
* Collaboration seeks to develop new cell-based treatments for neovascular and degenerative retinal disease
SAN DIEGO — EyeCyte, Inc., an early stage stem/progenitor cell-based ophthalmology research and development company based in La Jolla, California, today announced that it has secured its Series A funding through an agreement with Pfizer. The financing will fund the company into 2010 and will be primarily used to drive product development of the company’s initial clinical target, diabetic retinopathy.
Under the terms of the deal, Pfizer has invested $3 million in Series A Preferred shares of EyeCyte. Pfizer will be the sole pharmaceutical partner and will have an Advisory and Board role, helping to facilitate technology applications that will have meaningful pharmaceutical and patient impact. Pfizer will also have right of first refusal for a buy-out of EyeCyte or its technologies.
“EyeCyte is delighted to have attracted Pfizer as an investment partner”, said Mohammad A. El-Kalay, Ph.D., president and Chief Executive Officer, EyeCyte. “We are very pleased with the terms of our collaboration and believe that Pfizer shares our goal of building a premier ophthalmology research and development organization with an emphasis on stem/progenitor cell based therapies.”
Building on research into the causes of, and potential treatments for, retinal disease by Professor Martin Friedlander, M.D., Ph.D. and his laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, EyeCyte will use the properties of blood and bone marrow-derived progenitor cells of patients to pursue the development of treatments for acquired and inherited retinal diseases including diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, retinal vascular occlusive disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa.
Currently, available treatments benefit sub-populations of patients with these diseases, but there remains a great unmet medical need
Jul 28, 2010
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