Forbion capital partners lead financing in Fovea Pharmaceuticals

Forbion Capital Partners, in Naarden, The Netherlands has led a EUR30m ($44m) Series B financing of Paris-based biopharmaceutical company Fovea Pharmaceuticals - a developer of novel therapeutics for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. .

Forbion Capital Partners, in Naarden, The Netherlands has led a EUR30m ($44m) Series B financing of Paris-based biopharmaceutical company Fovea Pharmaceuticals - a developer of novel therapeutics for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases.

As well as Forbion, a strong, international syndicate of new and existing investors are expected to support this financing. They include Fovea's institutional investors; Sofinnova Partners, Abingworth, GIMV, The Wellcome Trust and CAPE.

Fovea plans to use the proceeds from this financing to advance its clinical and preclinical pipeline and further develop its technology platform.

In 2008, Fovea expects to advance its FOV1101 programme for chronic allergic conjunctivitis into Phase II clinical trials and to initiate Phase II studies of its FOV2302 and FOV2301 programmes for the treatment of acute and diabetic macular oedema, respectively. The company expects to bring its fourth drug candidate, FOV2501, a protein discovered by Professor Jose Sahel's team, into clinical trials in the first half of 2009.

"We are pleased that these leading investment firms recognise the value of Fovea's well balanced pipeline and unparalleled expertise in developing these novel therapies," said Bernard Gilly, chairman and ceo of Fovea Pharmaceuticals. "The company has made enormous progress and this financing will enable us to continue to advance our lead programs through later-stage clinical studies."

"Forbion Capital Partners invests in biopharmaceutical companies pursuing first or best in class drugs," said Sander Slootweg, managing partner at Forbion Capital Partners.

"In particular, we focus on companies with strong domain expertise and experienced management. Fovea in our view is well positioned to become a leader in the ophthalmology field. We are impressed by how quickly they have built a highly promising pipeline of products, which will be validated in the clinic using the proceeds of this financing round."

In connection with the financing, Sander Slootweg will join the Board of Directors, which is comprises Antoine Papiernik (Sofinnova Partners), Tim Haines (Abingworth), Anthony Wild (Bows Pharmaceuticals) and Bernard Gilly. Bernard Gilly has been elected as Chairman of the Board.

"Fovea's unique product platform has led to the generation of a robust pipeline of promising therapeutic candidates for the treatment of front and back of the eye disorders. Clinical candidates are already in development and we expect at least three new products to progress into the clinic in 2008," said Professor Jose Sahel, founder of Fovea Pharmaceuticals and chairman of the Vision Institute in Paris.

Fovea Pharmaceuticals has signed a research partnership agreement with Genzyme to develop gene related therapies, using Fovea's selected targets to treat major retinal dystrophies.