Guardion Health Sciences Completes $5 Million IPO to Advance Ocular Disease Therapies

Recently, VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that biotechnology company Guardion Health Sciences (NASDAQ: GHSI) announced the closing of its initial public offering. The offering consisted of 1.25 million shares of common stock issued to the public at $4 per share, with total gross proceeds of $5 million (before deducting underwriting commissions and other offering expenses). In addition, Guardion granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 187,500 shares of common stock at the public offering price (net of underwriting commissions). The offering was led by WallachBeth Capital, with WestPark Capital also participating.

It is reported that Guardion Health Sciences previously completed a $500,000 debt financing on May 15, 2015, a $25,000 seed round financing on June 8, 2016, a $1.2 million Series A financing on December 1, 2016, and a $3.1 million Series B financing on August 3, 2017.

Guardion Health Sciences, located in the Greater San Diego area on the West Coast of the United States, is a company dedicated to the science and technology of eye health. It possesses multiple industry-leading proprietary technologies and innovative therapeutic approaches for the early diagnosis, intervention, and monitoring of numerous ocular diseases. The company has developed the medical foods Lumega-Z and GlaucoCetin, and holds technologies such as Mapcat measurement technology and VectorVision test standardization technology.

Lumega-Z is the first medical food designed to address the deficiency of macular protective pigments—essential substances for maintaining normal visual function whose depletion may contribute to age-related macular degeneration. Featuring a unique micellar nutrient formulation, it aims to restore and maintain optimal macular pigment levels, ensuring high bioavailability and rapid therapeutic response in patients.

Mapcat is a technology for measuring MPOD (macular pigment optical density) that offers industry-leading measurement accuracy and has obtained patent certifications in the United States and Europe. Building on this technology, Guardion has also developed a medical device called MapcatSF, which can precisely measure macular pigment density and provides clinically evidence-based treatment solutions for deficiencies in macular protective pigments.

VectorVision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardion, offers clinically validated contrast sensitivity tests that are widely recognized and extensively used in the industry.

GlaucoCetin is the first medical food for vision modulation, designed to support and protect mitochondrial function in the optic nerve cells of glaucoma patients.

VectorVision specializes in the standardization of contrast sensitivity, glare sensitivity, low-contrast sensitivity, and ETDRS visual acuity testing. Its standardized systems provide clinicians and researchers with metrics to describe subtle changes in visual function. VectorVision’s CSV-1000 device is considered the standard of care for clinical trials.

The new generation of VectorVision products holds two patents for the standardization of visual acuity testing, providing a novel and accurate approach to visual acuity assessment for routine clinical use. This standardization also enables the comparison of visual acuity results across different physicians and locations.

WallachBeth Capital provides a broad range of active capital markets and investment banking services to the healthcare industry, connecting corporate clients with leading healthcare institutions to create value for issuers and investors. As a leading service provider, the company offers comprehensive solutions to help clients navigate increasingly complex markets.

WallachBeth primarily engages in the trading of ETFs, equities, and derivatives. Its business is conducted strictly on an agency basis and with full transparency, as the firm is committed to meeting client needs with openness and integrity.

WestPark Capital is a full-service investment banking and securities brokerage firm, focusing on emerging growth sectors such as healthcare, software, technology, biotechnology, financial services, manufacturing, consumer products, media, and telecommunications. The company provides comprehensive corporate finance services, including initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on offerings, private placements, SIPOs, and corporate finance advisory services.

(Compiled by Tang Lulu)