- Ocuphire Pharma — a Michigan-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on therapies for patients with ophthalmic disorders — raised over $5 million
Ocuphire Pharma — a Farmington Hills, Michigan-based clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the development and the commercialization of therapies for treating patients with a variety of ophthalmic disorders — announced recently that it raised more than $5 million.
The investors in this round include RBI Opportunities Fund, Belle Capital Fund, Grand Angels Fund, First Capital Fund, Michigan Angel Fund, Biosciences Research and Commercialization Center, Ann Arbor Angels, Woodward Angels, Kalamazoo Angels, BlueWater Angels, and other individual and institutional investors. And the proceeds of the offering will be used for funding multiple clinical trials of its lead drug candidate Nyxol.
Nyxol is essentially a novel eye drop treatment for multiple front-of-the-eye disorders, including night vision disturbances (NVD), glaucoma, and reversal of mydriasis. The company is exploring a fixed-dose combination of Nyxol for the treatment of presbyopia. And Nyxol is a proprietary ophthalmic formulation of phentolamine mesylate, an approved alpha-1 and alpha-2 inhibitor, allowing a more efficient 505(b)(2) development pathway for approval.
As Nyxol features safety and efficacy data from five Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials, it has demonstrated a differentiated product profile that includes moderately reducing pupil size — which leads to improved night and day vision thus significantly lowering intraocular pressure, and convenient once-daily dosing.
Nyxol was originally created by Dr. Gerald Horn — who is an ophthalmologist and laser vision specialist in Chicago. And Dr. Horn also invented the recently-approved redness reliever eye drop Lumify.
Ever since Ocuphire acquired the Nyxol asset in 2018, it has built out its management, board, clinical and manufacturing partners, and medical advisory board with more than ten world-class ophthalmic key opinion leaders.
“We are thrilled to have the support of our investors to advance Nyxol in clinical trials. As of mid-July, we are pleased to report that we have successfully enrolled more than 50% of the 40 patients in our ORION-1 glaucoma trial,” said Mina Sooch –the Chair, President, and CEO of Ocuphire. “We are excited about the potential to improve eye health and vision quality for millions of people around the world, particularly meeting the unmet needs of those with progressive, age-related ocular diseases. We are passionate about building Ocuphire into a leading ophthalmic company and adding novel ophthalmic drug candidates to our portfolio.”
Along with board members, Sooch and Alan Meyer are three independent directors Sean Ainsworth, James Manuso, Cam Gallagher, and Cam Gallagher. Ocuphire’s team has decades of collective experience in the successful discovery, development, approval, and commercialization of transformative therapies in ophthalmology, cancer, cardiovascular, and orphan diseases.
“After being a principal investigator on the first Phase 2 NVD clinical trial for Nyxol (NCT04004507) and seeing encouraging results, I am very happy to join Ocuphire’s medical advisory board and advance this promising therapy,” added Dr. Marguerite McDonald — who is a board-certified ophthalmologist and refractive/cornea/anterior segment surgeon with Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island. “Nyxol’s once-a-day eye drop and differentiated mechanism of action have the potential to offer a convenient and well-tolerated alternative for patients.”
