Completion of £15.5 million Series A Financing

Precision Ocular Ltd Completes £15.5 million Series A Financing

V-Bio Ventures joins investment syndicate

·      Completes oversubscribed £15.5 million Series A financing round

·      Accelerates development of additional product candidates

·      Investors include Imperial Innovations, Consort Medical plc, NeoMed, V-Bio Ventures and Hovione Scientia Ltd

Tuesday, 19 July 2016 - Precision Ocular, the Oxford-based retinal therapeutics company, today announces that V-Bio Ventures joins the Company's successful Series A financing round.  In all, Precision Ocular has raised £15.5 million from investors Imperial Innovations, Consort Medical plc, NeoMed, V‑Bio Ventures, and Hovione Scientia Ltd.

The oversubscribed £15.5 million investment will be used to develop programmes to treat retinal diseases such as age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular oedema, as well as rare and orphan indications.  The funds will also enable the development of our next generation ocular drug delivery systems which can administer cell and gene therapies to the back-of-eye.

Tom Cavanagh, CEO of Precision Ocular commented:

"We are delighted to welcome such a knowledgeable life sciences investor like V-Bio Ventures at this important time for Precision Ocular.  The supplemental financing validates the Company's therapeutic approach and enables us to drive forward our programmes, and ultimately our goal, to build a global ophthalmic franchise based on the successful development and commercialisation of our innovative and much needed treatments for retinal diseases."

Christina Takke, Managing Partner of V-Bio Ventures added:

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Precision Ocular and their partners, geared to bring novel eye disease therapeutic treatments to patients.  We rarely find an investment opportunity driven by such an experienced and goal-oriented management team.  Precision Ocular's technology has a great potential to fill the market need for treatments aimed at the back of the eye combining superior therapeutic efficacy, high safety and delivery precision, and patient convenience."  

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About Precision Ocular

Founded in 2014, Precision Ocular is developing novel retinal treatments engineered to access specific small spaces in the eye and to provide unique drug distribution to tissues specifically involved in retinal diseases.  The unique approach aims to increase therapeutic effectiveness, reduce side-effects and minimise frequency of treatments.  Precision's product development pipeline includes treatments for both prevalent retinal diseases, such as age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular oedema, as well as rare and orphan indications (www.precisionocular.co.uk).

About V-Bio Ventures

V-Bio Ventures is an independent venture capital firm specialized in building and financing young, innovative life science companies. V-Bio Ventures was established in 2015 and works closely with Belgium-based VIB, one of the world's premier life science institutes. The fund invests throughout Europe in start-up and early-stage companies with high growth potential focusing on technologies that provide transformational improvements in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and agricultural sectors (www.v-bio.ventures).