The round featured corporate-backed venture firm Lux Capital and will support completion of phase 3 trials for a treatment aimed at dry eye disease.
US-based ophthalmic drugs developer Kala Pharmaceuticals closed an oversubscribed $68m series C round yesterday featuring Lux Capital, a venture capital firm backed by a range of unnamed corporations.
The round was led by VC firm Longitude Capital and included OrbiMed, Vivo Capital, Cam Capital, RA Capital Management, Wellington Management Company, Polaris Partners, Crown Venture Fund (CVF) and other, unnamed existing shareholders.
Founded in 2009 by Lux Capital, Kala is working on therapies for ocular diseases that affect the front or the back of the eye. The company’s mucus-penetrating particle technology enables drugs to be delivered through the tear film mucus, the layer of the eye that helps it remain moist.
Kala will use the funding to complete a phase 3 clinical trial of a therapy aimed at pain and inflammation following cataract surgery, and two phase 3 trials of the same drug for dry eye disease. It also hopes to file New Drug Applications for each indication with US regulator FDA in 2017.
Gregory Grunberg, managing director at Longitude Capital, and Chen Yu, managing partner at Vivo Capital, will join Kala’s board of directors. Jonathan Silverstein, partner and co-head of global private equity at OrbiMed, will take an observer seat.
Kala Pharmaceuticals has raised a total of $121m to date. Lux was reportedly involved in both a $2m funding round in 2009 and a $3m round in 2010, before participating in an $11.5m series A round in 2013 led by CVF that also featured Polaris and Third Rock Ventures.
Lux Capital also took part in a $22.5m series B round in 2014 led by Ysios Capital that included CVF, Polaris and Third Rock.
