– Funding will enable lead candidates CTX114 and CTX203 for AMD to enter clinical trialsin thenext year

JERSEY CITY, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Character Biosciences, a precision medicine company transforming drug development for polygenic diseases, announced today an oversubscribed $93 million Series B financing round to accelerate the advancement of its pipeline of precision therapies to treat degenerative eye diseases, starting with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The funding was co-led by new investors aMoon and Luma Group, with additional participation from Bausch + Lomb and Jefferson Life Sciences, alongside existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Catalio Capital Management, S32, and KdT Ventures.

AMD affects one in eight people over 50 and is the leading cause of blindness for older adults worldwide. Despite its complexity, AMD has long been treated as a uniform disease, contributing to high failure rates in drug development. To apply a precision medicine approach to this disease, Character Bio has partnered with over 150 ophthalmology treatment centers across the US to conduct an AMD-focused observational trial, integrating genetics with longitudinal clinical and imaging data for over 6,500 consented patients. This proprietary resource enables the company to reclassify AMD into genetically-defined subtypes, discover and prioritize therapeutic targets, and optimize patient selection for clinical trials.

This data-driven approach has led to the discovery and advancement of its lead candidates, CTX203 and CTX114, which target key drivers of retinal cell death and vision loss. CTX114, a best-in-class complement inhibitor, is designed to slow the progression of geographic atrophy in advanced dry AMD, while CTX203, a first-in-class lipid regulator, aims to prevent progression to advanced AMD. Both programs are expected to enter clinical trials in the next year. The company is also leveraging its AI-driven, genomics-based platform to expand its pipeline into additional ophthalmic diseases.

“Millions of patients suffering from degenerative eye diseases lack effective treatments that delay disease progression,” said Cheng Zhang, CEO & Co-Founder, Character Biosciences. “By identifying the genetic modifiers of their disease progression, we can develop therapeutics to more precisely target the root causes of disease and improve clinical translation. This funding allows us to advance our lead programs into first-in-human trials, with the goal of bringing new therapies to patients who urgently need them.”

“The next frontier of precision medicine lies at the convergence of genomics, deep phenotyping, and AI applied to complex polygenic disorders,” said Reut Shema, PhD Partner, aMoon. “The Character Bio team is driving innovation forward by uniquely assembling historically siloed disciplines, spanning patient advocacy and provider partnerships, data integration and machine learning, statistical genetics and computational biology, as well as drug discovery and clinical development. We are proud to back this team’s mission to cure age-related blindness.”

“Character is leveraging its multi-omics approach to move beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to deliver first- and best-in-class therapies tailored to specific disease subtypes,” said Jamie Kasuboski, PhD, Partner, Luma Group. “Character’s patient-first approach is unique in its ability to identify those who are most likely to benefit from therapy, and we look forward to seeing the clinical impact of this approach with the use of proceeds from this financing.”

The Series B funding will support Phase 1 and Phase 2 proof-of-concept studies for CTX203 and CTX114, as well as the expansion of Character Bio’s pipeline into additional ophthalmic diseases. In January 2025, Character Bio announced a collaboration with Bausch + Lomb, which includes an upfront payment, with potential downstream development and sales-based milestones and royalties for novel therapeutics targeting AMD.

About Character Biosciences

Character Biosciences is a precision medicine company developing targeted therapies for progressive polygenic diseases, starting with ophthalmology. By integrating genomics, deep clinical data, and AI-driven modeling, Character Bio identifies disease drivers to improve the success rate of drug development. The company is advancing a pipeline focused on dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) to address significant unmet medical needs. For more information, visit www.characterbio.com.

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