Opthamology-focused gene therapy biotech Vedere Bio II, the successor to a Novartis-bought biotech that was scooped up in 2020, is closing up shop after failing to impress in preclinical studies.
Vedere Bio II, Inc., a company developing transformative, next-generation therapies for vision restoration and preservation, today will present new...
Vedere Bio II, Inc., a company developing transformative, next-generation therapies for vision restoration and preservation, today announced that two ...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vedere Bio II, Inc., a company developing next-generation therapies for vision restoration and preservation in patients with vision loss due to photoreceptor death, today announced the appointment of Martina Schinke, Ph.D., as Vice President, Program Leader. Dr. Schinke will provide strategic leadership to Vedere's core programs and will be responsible for driving and expanding the company's pipeline of next-generation ocular therapies.
Enter Arctos Medical, which will now join Novartis with its gene therapy program for vision loss. The small biotech will slide into a portfolio already home to similarly focused Vedere Bio, which came under Novartis’ wing in 2020 through a $150 million deal.
Right about a year ago, a Novartis team led by Jay Bradner and Cynthia Grosskreutz at NIBR swooped in to scoop up a Cambridge, MA-based opthalmology gene therapy company called Vedere. Their focus was on a rather narrow market niche: inherited retinal dystrophies that include a wide range of genetic retinal disorders marked by the loss of photoreceptor cells and progressive vision loss.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vedere Bio II, Inc., a company developing next generation ocular gene therapies designed for vision restoration and preservation for patients with vision loss due to photoreceptor death, today announced the completion of its $77 million Series A financing. Founded by the leadership and research team behind the former Vedere Bio, which was acquired by Novartis in September 2020, Vedere Bio II (Vedere) will leverage its new, proprietary, mutation agnostic optogenetics technology to improve upon current gene therapies by restoring functional vision to patients. The financing was led by Octagon Capital, who was also joined by new investors Samsara BioCapital and Casdin Capital, and Vedere's founding investors, Atlas Venture, Mission BioCapital and the RD Fund, the venture arm of Foundation Fighting Blindness.