ViewPoint Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company pioneering the development of crystallin stabilizers to prevent and treat cataracts and presbyopia, today announced the closing of a $4 million Series A financing.
The transaction was co-led by Mission Bay Capital and Lagunita BioSciences LLC. Also included in the syndicate was healthcare-dedicated investor, the Biotechnology Value Fund, L.P., as well as the University of Michigan through its MINTS initiative, Asset Management Ventures, and other sophisticated individual investors. ViewPoint plans to use the proceeds of the financing to advance its lead candidate, VP1-001, a small molecule identified via a target-based screening and optimization effort, through preclinical proof of concept experiments. ViewPoint anticipates that the proceeds will also allow the Company to advance second-generation compounds from the Company’s ongoing medicinal chemistry efforts.
With this financing, the Company has expanded its Board of Directors to include Dr. Douglas Crawford, Managing Director of Mission Bay Capital and Dr. Mark Blumenkranz, Co-Founder and a Director of Lagunita BioSciences LLC. Other members of ViewPoint’s Board of Directors include: ViewPoint co-founders Dr. Jason Gestwicki, Associate Professor at the University of California San Francisco Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Dr. Leah Makley, ViewPoint’s Chief Scientific Officer, and Ed Hurwitz, Managing Director at Precision BioVentures, LLC. Dr. Emmett Cunningham, Partner at Clarus Ventures is an independent member of ViewPoint’s Board of Directors.
