Eluminex Biosciences Announces Closing of $50 Million Series A Financing

Eluminex Biosciences Limited (Eluminex), an ophthalmic biotechnology company committed to the discovery and development of first-in-class and/or best-in-class therapies, today announced the completion of a $50 million (USD) Series A Financing co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures, GL Ventures (venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital), and Quan Capital. The Eluminex headquarters and research and development center are located in Suzhou Industrial Park; the business center is based in Shanghai, and future plans include establishing a global clinical and registration center in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We greatly appreciate the profound level of support and trust from three global investors,” said Jinzhong Zhang, PhD, Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer. “With these proceeds, our goal is to build an innovative pipeline addressing critical unmet medical needs in vision-threatening diseases for patients worldwide. Additionally, we are pleased to have three world-renowned professors of ophthalmology as members of our Scientific Advisory Board: Quan Dong Nguyen, MD, MSc (Stanford University), Zuguo Liu, MD, PhD (Xiamen University), and Xiaodong Sun, MD, PhD (Shanghai Jiao Tong University). We are grateful for their significant contributions in helping us develop our pipeline programs.”

The company also announced that Charles Semba, MD, has joined Eluminex as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Semba is an internationally recognized leader in ophthalmic drug development. He has served as CMO in three prior ophthalmic companies: SARcode Bioscience (acquired by Shire/Takeda), ForSight VISION5 (acquired by Allergan), and Graybug Vision (NASDAQ: GRAY). He has held senior leadership roles as Vice President Ophthalmic Medicine at Shire/Takeda and Ophthalmology Group Head at Genentech. Dr. Semba led the clinical development of ranibizumab (LUCENTISâ), the first global blockbuster anti-VEGF agent to reverse blindness in wet age-related macular degeneration and lifitegrast (XIIDRAâ), the first novel agent for the treatment of both signs and symptoms of dry eye disease; XIIDRAâ was acquired by Novartis for over $5 billion (USD).

Regarding the success of this financing, all parties have expressed their confidence and expectations for the new company. “Closing Series A financing is indeed a major milestone. The leadership at Eluminex should be congratulated for this impressive achievement amidst current global events.” commented Dr. Nguyen, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University. “Such financial success and security demonstrate the trusts that the company has earned from the investment community in Eluminex’s research and development therapeutic plans to preserve and enhance vision for patients with devastating ocular diseases worldwide.”

Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) is a leading biomedical venture capital firm founded in 2008, with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Menlo Park. LAV’s vision is to become the trusted partner for exceptional entrepreneurs seeking smart capital and to build great companies developing breakthrough products that can treat diseases and improve human health. For more information, visit www.lillyasiaventures.com.