
Charlottesville's TearSolutions raises $3M
TearSolutions, a Charlottesville biotech that is developing treatments for ocular surface diseases, has raised a $3 million Series B round.
TearSolutions Inc., a Charlottesville biotech that is developing treatments for ocular surface diseases, said Thursday it had raised a $3 million Series B round.
The company said it would use the money to accelerate programs for rare corneal diseases at both preclinical and clinical stages. The participants in the funding round were not revealed.
“This round of financing is significant for several reasons, but most notably, it enables us to explore the potential of our therapeutic’s highly differentiated mechanism of action in additional attractive corneal indications,” Anil Asrani, president and CEO of TearSolutions, said in a statement. “Moreover, this funding allowed us to convert existing debt, strengthening the Company’s financial position as we look ahead.”
TearSolutions’ therapies are built around Lacritin, a protein that has been found to be deficient in most ailments to the eye’s surface. Dr. Gordon Laurie, the company’s founder and chief scientific officer, developed Lacripepe, which preserves all of the biological activity of Lacritin.
TearSolutions was spun out of the University of Virginia, where Laurie worked as a researcher, in 2013. It has raised $17.3 million in venture funding since it was founded, according to Crunchbase.
Source: BizJournals.com