Character Biosciences has raised an oversubscribed $93 million in Series B financing to support the continued development and advancements of its precision therapy-based pipeline for degenerative eye diseases.
First, talk about this financing.
Co-led by new investors aMoon and artificial intelligence (AI)-focused Luma Group, the round also included participation from:
- Bausch + Lomb
- Jefferson Life Sciences
- Innovation Endeavors (existing investor)
- Catalonia Capital Management (existing investor)
- S32 (existing investor)
- KdT Ventures (existing investor)
As for the “oversubscribed” part: This means that Character had even more interest than they could accept during this round of financing.
Now a company rundown.
Based in Jersey City, New Jersey, the precision medicine company was originally launched in 2019 as Clover Therapeutics before rebranding in 2022 as Character Biosciences.
The self-described “patient-driven therapeutics” company is on a mission to identify genetic and molecular drivers of disease progression to develop targeted therapeutics for patients in need.
- Its focus: Polygenic diseases (starting in ophthalmology).
Its approach: Involves integrating genomics, deep clinical data, and AI-based modeling into a precision medicine platform to identify disease drivers and improve the success rate of drug development.
Expand on this precision medicine approach.
The platform is built on a data network encompassing four key components:
- Patient and provider network via direct partnerships across the United States
- Comprehensive multi-omics datasets of integrated genomics and stem cell-derived cellular models to capture a biological picture of patients
- Longitudinal clinical data (electronic medical records, imaging, physician notes) to observe disease progression and response interventions
- AI-enabled phenotypes for tracing disease trajectories, including current states and potential intervention windows
And what does its pipeline look like?
The company is currently advancing four preclinical programs, with an immediate focus on dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and (eventually) primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).
Its programs include:
- CTX203 (high-risk intermediate AMD)
- CTX114 (geographic atrophy [GA])
- AMD (undisclosed)
- POAG (undisclosed)
What should we know about Character’s AMD plans?
Character is using its precision medicine approach to conduct an AMD-focused observational trial of +6,500 patients in partnership with 150+ ophthalmology treatment centers across the U.S.
- Central to this trial: The company’s approach to integrating genetics with the longitudinal clinical and imaging data from trial participants, enabling it to “reclassify AMD into genetically-defined subtypes, discover and prioritize therapeutic targets, and optimize patient selection for clinical trials.”
Got it. And how about its AMD-based clinical programs?
Using its data-driven approach, Character developed and advanced its lead candidates: CTX203 and CTX114—both of which are the targets for this $93 million in funding. Some insight on each:
CTX203
- What it is: A first-in-class lipid-modulating agent for preventing irreversible retinal cell death and vision loss (in other words: prevent progression to advanced AMD)
- Its dual-acting mechanism of action (MOA):
- Stabilizing ABCA1 at the plasma membrane to enhance intracellular lipid efflux
- Extracellular lipid packaging and clearance
- Its dual-acting mechanism of action (MOA):
- Additionally: Character reported plans to deploy a proprietary lipid pathway-specific polygenic risk score to identify patients more likely to progress quickly and to respond to lipid-modulating therapy
CTX114
- What it is: A novel complement inhibitor for slowing down the rate of retinal cell death and vision loss (in other words: slow GA progression in advanced AMD).
- Its MOA: Involves providing enhanced protection of retinal surfaces from complement activation
- Along these lines: The company reported it has developed a proprietary complement pathway-specific polygenic risk score to identify patients who are more likely to progress in their disease and to respond to complement-directed therapy.
So what’s the plan for these candidates?
Both CTX203 and CTX114 are reported to be undergoing first-in-human, investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies with the intent for clinical trial initiation sometime this year.
And in regards to that Series B funding?
The financing will support phase 1 and phase 2 proof-of-concept studies for both candidates—and also fund the company’s pipeline expansion into other ophthalmic diseases (including POAG).
And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention: Also on the subject of financing, Character announced a partnership with Bausch + Lomb earlier this year, in which B+L supplied an upfront payment and annual research funding to the company for its AMD-based candidates (among other potential milestone payments).