Ollin Biosciences Secures $330M Series B to Advance Vabysmo Challenger into Phase 3 Trials
Key Insights
Ollin Biosciences (search) raised $330 million in a Series B financing co-led by ARCH Venture Partners (search) and TCGX (search) to fund pivotal Phase 3 testing of OLN324 (search).
OLN324 (search) is an investigational therapy targeting wet age-related macular degeneration (search) and diabetic macular edema (search), with Phase 1b data suggesting greater potency and longer-lasting effects than Roche's Vabysmo.
The company is part of a growing wave of U.S. startups built on medicines licensed from China, working with partner Innovent Biologics (search) on OLN324 (search).
Ollin Biosciences (search), a startup focused on ophthalmic diseases, has raised $330 million in a Series B financing round to advance its lead experimental medicine into Phase 3 testing in the second half of this year. The round was co-led by founding investor ARCH Venture Partners (search) and new investor TCGX (search), with participation from accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, RA Capital Management, and Monograph Capital.
The financing ranks among the largest Series B rounds for a biotech company in the last two years, according to STAT, and signals strong investor confidence in the company's pipeline of eye disease therapies.
OLN324 (search): A Potential Vabysmo Competitor
The proceeds will primarily support pivotal research of OLN324 (search), a drug designed to combat leading causes of vision loss. OLN324 targets both wet age-related macular degeneration (search) (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (search) (DME), conditions that affect millions of Americans and can lead to significant vision impairment.
A Phase 1b study suggested that OLN324 (search) may be more potent with longer-lasting effects than Roche's Vabysmo (faricimab), which was approved in 2022 and has been steadily gaining market share from the longtime category leader Eylea (aflibercept), sold by Regeneron. After less than four full years on the market, Vabysmo generated 4.1 billion Swiss francs, or approximately $5 billion, in 2025 for Roche.
The potential market opportunity is substantial, though all medicines competing in this space face increasing pressure from cheaper copycat versions of Eylea, including one from Amgen that launched in 2024.
A China-Licensed Pipeline
Ollin is part of a broader wave of biotechnology startups built on medicines licensed from China, where lower costs and a more flexible regulatory climate have fueled a biotech boom. The company is collaborating with Innovent Biologics (search) on OLN324 (search) and plans to advance a second drug, OLN102 (search), into the clinic this year through a partnership with VelaVigo. OLN102 is being developed for thyroid eye disease (search) and Graves' disease (search) and is positioned as a would-be competitor to Amgen's Tepezza, designed to potentially offer better efficacy and fewer side effects.
The growing embrace of Chinese biotech by U.S. companies has drawn scrutiny in Washington. Two House lawmakers recently proposed legislation to crack down on Chinese biotech deals, and federal health officials released a plan on Monday aimed at speeding up early U.S. clinical trials to counter one of China's main competitive advantages.
Future Outlook
CEO Jason Ehrlich addressed the possibility of an initial public offering, telling BioPharma Dive that an IPO is "one type of future financing potentially available to us," but emphasized that "right now, our priority is execution: generating strong clinical data and advancing our programs. If and when the public markets represent the right opportunity for the company, we'll be well positioned for that path."
The financing round also drew crossover investors — private investors who typically take stakes in companies shortly before they transition to the public markets — suggesting that Ollin may be positioning itself for a future IPO, following in the footsteps of companies like Kailera Therapeutics, which used its Chinese-built pipeline to go public in one of the sector's largest-ever initial public offerings.