Bengaluru-based clinical-stage biotechnology company Eyestem Research has secured $10 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Raju Barwale and Sandeep Singh, Managing Director of Alkem Laboratories. The company had previously raised $9.95 million from Alkem Labs, Biological E, and C-CAMP.
The fresh capital will fund the completion of Eyestem’s ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial in India and support preparations for filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Founded in 2015 by Jogin Desai, Rajani Battu, and Rajarshi Pal, Eyestem is pioneering cell replacement therapies for incurable eye diseases, with a focus on dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — a leading cause of blindness in people over 50.
Its flagship therapy, Eyecyte-RPE, uses retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells to replace damaged retinal cells. Designed for patients with geographic atrophy (GA), an advanced form of dry AMD, the therapy is allogeneic, scalable, and can be stored long-term as a frozen vial.
Eyestem has already submitted its Phase 1 clinical study report to India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and is awaiting approval to move into Phase 2 trials. The company believes Eyecyte-RPE could enable tissue regeneration in the diseased retina, offering hope to millions worldwide.
Globally, around 196 million people suffer from dry AMD, with 5 million facing GA. In this race to restore vision, Eyestem joins international peers like Lineage Cell Therapeutics and Voyager Therapeutics.
By Muskan dengra
