Last October was an FDA approval. This October is a $68 million fundraising round. Next year, maybe a drug launch.
Orasis Pharmaceuticals announced a Series D round on Tuesday, plus another $10 million in “structured capital,” to fund the commercial rollout of its eye drops for presbyopia.
The launch of the drug, called Qlosi, isn’t expected until early next year, president and COO Paul Smith told Endpoints News. In the meantime, Florida and Israel-based Orasis is building its commercial infrastructure.
Presbyopia is a common condition that happens when the eye’s lens hardens, causing blurry vision up close.
The company will have at least some competition for the disease, beyond glasses and contacts that can be used to treat it. AbbVie gained the first FDA clearance for blurry vision eye drops, branded Vuity, three years ago. But it vastly pulled back on sales and marketing of the drug and then axed a second-generation eye drop. Lenz Therapeutics, meanwhile, requested FDA approval for its own drop in August, a few quarters after it went public via a reverse merger. Another company, Ocuphire, is also in Phase 3.
The companies are targeting a vast market. Also known as age-related farsightedness, the condition impacts many people over the age of 45, with the American Optometric Association estimating 128 million cases in the US.
“Everyone has seen that the promotional effort behind Vuity has really waned, and so we see an opportunity really to revitalize the category, to help meet more patients where they are,” Smith said.
Smith said it’s good to have multiple players in the field, and that many patients want alternatives to reading glasses.
Commercial plans
Orasis plans to price its eye drops around the same range as Vuity, which has a retail cost of about $99 for an approximately one-month supply. Qlosi is manufactured by a company in Europe, Smith said, declining to name it.
The company will announce a head of sales in the “coming weeks,” Smith said.
“More than 85% of all vision exams are performed by optometrists, and so we’re really focused on that audience,” he said.
Orasis will launch Qlosi on its own in the US, but is in “advanced discussions with a number” of potential licensing partners that are “established players in the eye care space” elsewhere, Smith said. Lenz, which could get FDA approval as soon as next year, has lined up a partner in China.
The corporate venture capital arm of Johnson & Johnson co-led the Series D with Arboretum Ventures.
Other investors include Catalio Capital Management, Freepoint Capital Group, Visionary Ventures, Sequoia Capital, SBI (Japan) Innovation Fund, Bluestem Capital and Maverick Ventures, plus unnamed individuals.
Orasis last disclosed a $30 million round in September 2020.