Fovea raises €30M for treatments for eye diseases

Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA, of Paris, which is developing treatments for ophthalmic diseases, raised €30 million in a second funding round led by Forbion Capital Partners. The company’s existing investors Sofinnova Partners, Abingworth, GIMV, the Wellcome Trust and CAPE all followed on.

Fovea will use the money to advance its clinical and preclinical pipeline and further develop its technology platform. In 2008, FOV1101 for the treatment of chronic allergic conjunctivitis will enter Phase II trials, as will FOV2302 and FOV230, for the treatment of acute and diabetic macular oedema respectively. The company expects its fourth drug candidate, FOV2501, to start clinical trials in the first half of 2009.

“We are pleased that these leading investment firms recognise the value of Fovea’s well balanced pipeline and unparalleled expertise in developing these novel therapies” said Bernard Gilly, Chairman and CEO of Fovea Pharmaceuticals. “The company has made enormous progress and this financing will enable us to continue to advance our lead programmes through later-stage clinical studies.”

“Fovea in our view is well-positioned to become a leader in the ophthalmology field. We are impressed by how quickly they have built a highly promising pipeline of products, which will be validated in the clinic using the proceeds of this financing round,” said Sander Slootweg, managing partner at Forbion Capital Partners. Slootweg will join the board of Fovea.

Fovea has made speedy progress since it was spun out of Vision Institute at the National Hospital of Opthalmology in Paris in May 2005, by Jose Sahel, to commercialise genes and protein factors he has discovered that are involved in retinal degeneration.

In November the company signed a research partnership agreement with US biotech Genzyme to develop gene related therapies, using Fovea’s targets, to treat major retinal dystrophies.