Character Biosciences Secures $110M Series B Extension, Expands Leadership to Advance AMD Therapeutics
核心洞察
Character Biosciences (搜索) expanded its Series B financing to over $110 million with participation from Sanofi Ventures (搜索) and other investors to advance its precision medicine pipeline for degenerative eye diseases.
The company appointed four senior executives including Robert Kim as Chief Medical Officer and Daniel Elgort as Chief Data & Analytics Officer to strengthen its leadership team.
Funding proceeds will support clinical development of CTX114, a complement (搜索) inhibitor for geographic atrophy (搜索), and CTX203, a lipid modulator designed to prevent progression to advanced age-related macular degeneration (搜索).
Character Biosciences (搜索) has secured an extension of its Series B financing round, bringing total capital raised to more than $110 million, while simultaneously expanding its leadership team with four senior appointments to advance its precision medicine pipeline targeting degenerative eye diseases.
The additional funding included participation from Sanofi Ventures (搜索) alongside new and existing investors, building upon the company's previously announced $93 million Series B round that was co-led by aMoon Growth Fund (搜索) and the Luma Group (搜索). The original financing also included participation from Bausch + Lomb (搜索), Jefferson Life Sciences, Innovation Endeavors, Catalio Capital Management, S32, and KdT Ventures.
Leadership Team Expansion
The company announced four key executive appointments to strengthen its capabilities as it advances toward clinical trials:
- Robert Kim, MD, MBA as Chief Medical Officer
- Daniel Elgort, PhD as Chief Data & Analytics Officer
- Josh Buddle as Head of Clinical Network and Longitudinal Research
- Jessamyn Wead as Head of People
"These appointments and the additional funding mark an important moment for Character Bio as we advance our first therapeutic programs toward the clinic," said Cheng Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Character Biosciences (搜索). "The expanded leadership team and strong support from our investors strengthen our ability to deliver on our mission of transforming outcomes for patients with vision-threatening diseases."
Pipeline Development Focus
Proceeds from the financing will enable Character Bio to advance the clinical development of two key therapeutic programs targeting age-related macular degeneration (搜索) (AMD):
CTX114 is a complement (搜索) inhibitor designed to treat geographic atrophy (搜索) (GA), an advanced form of dry AMD (搜索) that leads to progressive vision loss.
CTX203 represents a lipid modulator approach designed to prevent progression to advanced AMD, potentially addressing earlier stages of the disease.
"I am thrilled to join Character at such a pivotal time," said Robert Kim, the newly appointed Chief Medical Officer. "Dry AMD (搜索) is the next frontier in ophthalmology, and Character's multidisciplinary approach has the potential to deliver treatments that truly address the unmet needs of patients."
Strategic Partnership Value
The participation of Sanofi Ventures (搜索) in the financing extension underscores the strategic value of Character Bio's precision medicine platform. Jason Hafler, Managing Director of Sanofi Ventures, will join Character Bio's Board of Directors as part of the investment.
"Character has built a compelling portfolio of precision medicine programs and a unique patient data platform," Hafler noted. "We are excited to partner with the team and contribute to the continued development of their pipeline."
The new executives join Character Bio's existing leadership team, which includes CEO Cheng Zhang, Chief Scientific Officer Laura Carter, PhD, SVP of Drug Discovery Erik Karrer, PhD, and Senior Director of Business Development & Corporate Strategy Kaila Smilen, MBA.
Character Biosciences (搜索) positions itself as a precision medicine company focused on transforming drug development for polygenic diseases, with its current pipeline concentrated on addressing vision-threatening conditions that represent significant unmet medical needs in ophthalmology.