US/China-based ocular disease drug developer Cloudbreak has secured approximately RMB180m ($25.4m) in funding from investors including pharmaceutical company Grand Pharmaceutical, DealStreetAsia has reported.
Venture capital firm V-Capital led the round, which also featured BOC International, a subsidiary of financial services firm Bank of China, as well as asset manager Lumiere Fund.
Grand Pharma paid $5.6m for a 6.5% stake in Cloudbreak as part of the round, in connection with the acquisition of the Chinese licensing rights for its lead product candidate, CBT-001. The corporate will also take a seat on Cloudbreak’s board of directors.
Founded in 2015, Cloudbreak is developing medicines to treat ocular disorders and particularly pterygium, a disease characterised by a corneal growth that can eventually cover the pupil and impair a patient’s vision.
The company operates jointly through a Chinese entity called Cloudbreak Bio-Pharmaceutical Science and Technology and a US-based one known as Cloudbreak Therapeutics.
CBT-001 has completed phase 2 clinical trials for pterygium in the US and could become the first drug to be approved as a pterygium treatment. Cloudbreak has another three candidates in the preclinical phase.
The latest round comes in the wake of approximately $15.8m in funding from investment firm Hy Capital in October 2018.
