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Horama raises $22 million to Advance Gene Therapy Programs for Eye Disease

November 8, 2017

Rare Daily Staff

French biotech Horama, which is developing gene therapies for the treatment of rare, inherited retinal diseases, said it completed a $22 million (€19 million) series B financing.

Kruma Partners led the financing round with other new investors Fund+, Pontifax, and Idinvest. Existing investors Omnes Capital, GO Capital, and Sham Innovation Santé/Turenne also participated in the round. It followed a $4.6 million (€4 million) series A financing in July 2016.

Horama said the funding will be used to finance the development of the HORA-PDE6B, which has just been authorized by the French regulatory authorities to begin a phase 1/2 study for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited retinal dystrophy characterized by progressive loss of the photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium, leading to blindness at midlife.

retinitis pigmentosa is caused by mutations in the PDE6B gene. HORA-PDE6B is a replacement gene therapy that provides a non-mutated copy of the PDE6B gene to express a functional PDE6β protein. There is currently no approved treatment for retinitis pigmentosa.

Horama also has a gene therapy program in preclinical development to treat retinitis punctata albescens, an inherited retinal dystrophy characterized by progressive night blindness and presence of small white dots on the retina.

November 8, 2017

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