Backed by Hen­ri Ter­meer es­tate, Au­ra rais­es $30M for work to pre­vent blind­ness in eye can­cer pa­tients

Cam­bridge, MA biotech Au­ra Bio­sciences has raised $30 mil­lion in a Se­ries C round to take its light-ac­ti­vat­ed nanopar­ti­cle tech in­to late-stage tri­als for eye can­cer.

With the new cash, Au­ra plans to fi­nance its Phase Ib/II tri­al of the com­pa­ny’s lead ther­a­py AU-011. The prod­uct can­di­date is be­ing test­ed in pa­tients with a rare eye can­cer called oc­u­lar melanoma. Even though the can­cer is of­ten caught in its ear­ly stages, pa­tients of­ten go blind due to how the can­cer is cur­rent­ly treat­ed. Au­ra’s founder and CEO Elis­a­bet de los Pinos tells me this eye can­cer is cur­rent­ly treat­ed with ra­dioac­tiv­i­ty since surgery is not pos­si­ble.

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