Excerpt from Wall Street Journal VC Daily 

Re-Vana, Boehringer Strike Deal for Gentler Eye-Disease Treatments

By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro

Good day. Eye injections are a fact of life for many patients with severe ocular diseases. In a new partnership, Re-Vana Therapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim hope to at least reduce how often patients need to get them.

Re-Vana, a U.S.- and U.K.- based startup that develops ocular therapeutics and drug-delivery technologies, and Boehringer, a pharmaceutical major, have struck a deal potentially worth over $1 billion to advance extended-release eye medicines that would require fewer injections than current treatments do.

Doctors treat conditions like the “wet” form of age-related macular degeneration with injections given around three to nine times a year, depending on the patient and the drug, said Michael O’Rourke, chief executive of Re-Vana. Re-Vana’s technology enables biological and other types of drugs to be effective even when injected into the eye only once or twice a year, the company says.

“Patients want less frequent injections,” O’Rourke said.

Re-Vana uses a biodegradable hydrogel for sustained drug delivery in the eyes, enabling the medicines to be injected once every six or 12 months. The collaboration will apply Re-Vana’s delivery capabilities to medicines in Boehringer’s pipeline of eye-disease treatments.

Re-Vana, which will receive upfront and milestone payments plus royalties on drug sales, has raised about $18 million in venture capital from investors such as Visionary Ventures and ExSight Ventures. It is seeking an additional $40 million to fund its internal drug development, O’Rourke said.