Pharmaceutical firm Novartis acquired one of its portfolio companies, Switzerland-based ocular therapeutics developer Arctos Medical, for an undisclosed amount today.
Founded in 2012, Arctos is working on optogenetics-based adeno-associated virus gene therapies to treat diseases that involve photoreceptor loss – which causes blindness – such as inherited retinal dystrophies and age-related macular degeneration.
The company was incubated at ND Capital, the venture capital firm then known as NanoDimension, and secured $8.1m in a December 2019 series A round led by ND Capital and backed by Novartis vehicle Novartis Venture Fund.
Cynthia Grosskreutz, global head of ophthalmology at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, said: “We have watched this technology develop and mature into a therapeutic programme that complements our existing portfolio and gives us new optogenetics technology to wield in our efforts to bring desperately needed therapeutic options to patients for these blinding diseases.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
