Published on 29 May 2024 on BioPharma Dive via Yahoo Finance
Merck to buy eye drug developer for $1.3B
Dive Brief:
Merck & Co. on Wednesday said it has agreed to buy privately held eye drug developer EyeBio for $1.3 billion in cash upfront and as much as $1.7 billion in future milestone payments.Backed by SV Health Investors, Samsara BioCapital and Jeito Capital, EyeBio focuses on developing treatments for vision loss associated with retinal vascular leakage. Its most advanced drug, Restoret, is an injection designed to restore the blood-retinal barrier by targeting a signaling pathway known as Wnt.Restoret delivered results Merck described as positive in a Phase 1b/2a study of people with diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Based on that research, EyeBio plans to move Restoret into a pivotal trial for patients with diabetic macular edema in the second half of this year.
Dive Insight: