Ascendis Pharma A/S has two approved products and plans to submit a third drug candidate for approval later this year from its endocrinology rare disease portfolio. It also has two clinical-stage cancer drug development programs, but the public company is spinning out its preclinical wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) asset into a new private company called Eyconis Inc. The spinout will have $150m in initial funding from venture capital and institutional investors.
Finance Watch: Ascendis Spins Out Ophthalmology Firm Eyconis With $150m
New Company Will Use TransCon For Eye Diseases
Private Company Edition: Publicly held Ascendis outsourced its preclinical AMD program to private Eyconis. Also, Innovation Endeavors revealed a new $630m VC fund and Mirae raised $50m for its first life science fund, while Accent, Comanche and Tr1X each brought in $75m rounds.

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Private Company Edition: The latest group of drug developers to announce venture capital financings is remarkable for its geographic diversity, from Character Biosciences’ $93m series B round in the US to Augustine’s $85m series B in Belgium to a $29.2m series C for Aculys in Japan.
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