Ray Therapeutics Inc announced it has secured an oversubscribed $100 million in Series A financing to advance multiple optogenetic gene therapy programs for the treatment of retinal diseases.
Give me a refresh on the company.
Based in San Francisco, California, Ray Therapeutics is a late-stage preclinical biotechnology company focused on developing potential first-in-class novel, genotype-independent, optogenetic therapies for blinding retinal diseases.
Any lead candidates?
Yup! RTx-015 is currently in pre-clinical trials for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
The targeted delivery will be via intravitreal administration to disperse the therapy into the retina and transduce primarily retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), potentially restoring some level of vision that could result in quality of life improvement.
The development is supported by an adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) manufacturing partnership launched in October 2022 with Forge Biologics, a hybrid gene therapy contract manufacturing and clinical-stage therapeutics development company that provides clinical-stage plasmid DNA production.
Now the financing.
The company’s funding round was led by Novo Holdings and included Deerfield Management; Norwest Venture Partners; Plantanus, MRL Ventures Fund; Merck & Co. (via a therapeutics corporate venture fund); and 4BIO Capital (a pre-existing investor).
How will it be used?
Ray Therapeutics intends to advance its optogenetics gene therapy programs , which—in addition to RTx-015 for RP—includes RTx-015 for other inherited retinal degenerations like Stargardt’s disease as well as RTx-021 for geographic atrophy (GA).
So what’s next?
According to the company, RTx-015 is expected to begin first-in-human clinical trials shortly … so stay tuned for further details!