- Financing co-led by Forbion Ventures Fund VI and Forbion Growth Opportunities Fund II
- Round will support the development of lead asset AGTC-501 and broader pipeline
- Forbion General Partners Dmitrij Hristodorov and Wouter Joustra to join the Board of Directors
Naarden, The Netherlands – July 3, 2024 – Forbion, a leading global life sciences venture capital firm with deep expertise in Europe, today announced it has raised $170 million in Series B funding in Beacon Therapeutics. Forbion led the round and was joined by existing investors Syncona Limited and Oxford Science Enterprises, as well as initial investments from TCGX and Advent Life Sciences. The funds will be used to support the continued clinical development of Beacon’s lead asset, AGTC-501 for X-Linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (XLRP) and generate Phase 1/2 clinical trial data for the Company’s Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (dAMD) program.
Dmitrij Hristodorov and Wouter Joustra, General Partners at Forbion, and Cariad Chester, Managing Partner at TCGX, join Beacon Therapeutics’ Board of Directors. Dominic Schmidt, General Partner at Advent Life Sciences, joins as a Board Observer.
Beacon is focused on both orphan and prevalent diseases, including XLRP, a blinding orphan disease for which there is no available treatment, as well as dAMD. AGTC-501, the Company’s lead asset, is currently in a registrational clinical trial for the treatment of XLRP, and unlike other approaches in the space, AGTC-501 expresses the full length RPGR protein, thereby addressing all photoreceptor damage caused by XLRP, including both rod and cone loss.
Forbion is proud to support Beacon Therapeutics at this critical juncture in the development of its pipeline of pioneering ophthalmic gene therapies. Beacon’s deep expertise and renowned management bench give us confidence in the plan to build a leading retinal gene therapy company.
Dmitrij Hristodorov
General Partner at Forbion
We are focused on progressing our pipeline of ophthalmic gene therapies to save and restore the vision of patients with a range of prevalent and rare retinal diseases that result in blindness. I am confident that along with the addition of Dmitrij Hristodorov, Wouter Joustra and Cariad Chester to the Beacon Board, these funds will support the ongoing development of our late-stage and pre-clinical pipeline and enable acceleration of the development of AGTC-501 as we progress through the clinic and toward commercialization.
David Fellows
Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Therapeutics
The company has raised approximately $290 million in funding to date. This funding round follows several clinical milestones for the company, including the first patient dosed in the VISTA registrational trial for AGTC-501, the initiation of the Phase II DAWN trial, and the presentation of positive 12-month interim results of the Phase 2 SKYLINE trial at the 47th Annual Macula Society Meeting demonstrating the precision, effectiveness and safety of Beacon’s therapeutic interventions.
