US-based biopharmaceutical company Clearside Biomedical has raised $16m in series B funding from RusnanoMedInvest, a subsidiary of the state-run Russian investment firm Rusnano.
Japan-based Santen Pharmaceutical’s US subsidiary was also involved, alongside venture capital firms Hatteras Venture Partners, Mountain Group Capital and Georgia Research Alliance Venture Fund, a private investment fund created to help finance GRA Ventures, the commercialisation arm of the Georgia Research Alliance.
Clearside Biomedical develops drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye. The funding will support drug development and the advancing of its CLS-1001 and CLS-1003 programmes into Phase 2 trials by the end of the year.
The company secured $7.9m in series A funding in 2013 from Santen, Mountain Group, Hatteras, Georgia Research Alliance Fund and Kenan Flagler Business School Private Equity Fund.
Clearside raised $4m for its launch in 2012 from Hatteras, Georgia Research and Kenan Flagler Venture Fund.