Editor: What To Know
- Semba led the clinical development of ranibizumab (LUCENTIS®), the first global blockbuster anti-VEGF agent to reverse blindness in wet age-related macular degeneration and lifitegrast (XIIDRA®), the first novel agent for the treatment of both signs and symptoms of dry eye disease.
- Eluminex Biosciences Limited, a Shangai, China-based ophthalmic biotechnology company, completed a $50m (USD) Series A financing.
- The business center is based in Shanghai, and future plans include establishing a global clinical and registration center in the San Francisco Bay Area.
November 27, 2020
Eluminex Biosciences Limited, a Shangai, China-based ophthalmic biotechnology company, completed a $50m (USD) Series A financing. The round was co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures, GL Ventures (venture capital arm of Hillhouse Capital), and Quan Capital.
The company intends to use the funds to build an innovative pipeline addressing critical unmet medical needs in vision-threatening diseases for patients worldwide.
Established in February 2020 by Dr. Jinzhong Zhang and Dr. Zhenze John Hu, Eluminex is committed to developing novel therapeutics for the benefit of patients with vision-threatening eye diseases worldwide.
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.
Additionally, the company has announced three world-renowned professors of ophthalmology as members of its 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).
Eluminex 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 (LUCENTIS®), the first global blockbuster anti-VEGF agent to reverse blindness in wet age-related macular degeneration and lifitegrast (XIIDRA®), the first novel agent for the treatment of both signs and symptoms of dry eye disease; XIIDRA® was acquired by Novartis for over $5 billion (USD).
