Good day. Biotechnology startup Ollin Biosciences has refueled with $330 million in new venture funding to challenge top drugmakers in the market for drugs to treat vision disorders.

Austin, Texas-based Ollin’s most-advanced compound could treat two common causes of vision loss: the wet form of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema.

Existing treatments for these diseases include Roche’s Vabysmo, which generated more than $5 billion in 2025 sales.

Ollin says its drug shows signs of having advantages over existing medicines. A head-to-head clinical study of its drug versus Vabysmo showed that Ollin’s compound led to greater vision gains and other benefits, according to the company.

Like Vabysmo, Ollin’s drug takes aim at VEGF and Ang2 molecules. But Ollin’s drug more potently inhibits Ang2 and promises to more rapidly penetrate diseased tissue, according to Dr. Jason Ehrlich, co-founder and chief executive of Ollin.

This Series B round, led by new investor TCGX and founding investor ARCH Venture Partners, will enable Ollin to initiate Phase 3 clinical trials of this drug this year. It also will fund advancement of another compound, a potential treatment for thyroid eye disease and Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition, into the clinic this year.

The opportunity for new ophthalmology treatments is large because so many patients globally have vision disorders, said Paul Berns, an ARCH managing director and chair of Ollin’s board.

“There’s a lot of white space for progress to be made,” he added.

And now on to the news...

Clinical AI. Startup UpDoc has secured Food and Drug Administration clearance for AI that interacts with patients and adjusts medication doses, another step toward propelling the technology into everyday medicine. 

• UpDoc says its artificial intelligence can call or message patients between doctors’ appointments and modify medicine doses, within parameters set by the patient’s human clinician, to ensure patients receive optimal treatment.
   
• UpDoc contends the technology, expected to enter pilot testing this year, will ease doctors’ workloads and help patients better manage illnesses, starting with Type 2 diabetes.
   
• The startup has $18 million in seed funding from investors including S32, Polaris Partners, the American Diabetes Association’s innovation fund and the Mayo Clinic.

The startup Mirendil said Wednesday that it has raised $200 million in seed funding at a $1 billion valuation from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins and Nvidia. Mirendil’s co-founders, Behnam Neyshabur and Harsh Mehta, say their hope is that building self-improving AI can help open-source AI developers keep pace with frontier labs. They say that accelerating AI research will allow scientists to develop their own specialized in-house AI models in fields like medicine or materials.

• “What we are doing is kind of AI for AI for science, as opposed to AI for science,” Neyshabur, Mirendil’s chief executive, said.

Demand for restricted peptides has fueled an online gray market for injections promising youth, beauty and strength. American businesses are racing—and taking risks—to get in on the craze. These drugs, which advocate a D.I.Y. approach to health and longevity, are largely unapproved by the Food and Drug Association, meaning they can’t be marketed or sold for human consumption in the U.S. But with the support of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., several popular peptides will soon be up for reclassification, paving the way for a multibillion-dollar wellness gold rush.

Drug companies have increasingly been doing early research in countries like China and Australia where they say it takes less time and money. U.S. officials are taking new steps to keep those studies at home. Federal health officials unveiled a package of regulatory reforms on Monday with the aim of cutting about six months to a year off the time it takes to do a safety study, which is the first round of testing drugs in people. The move comes as drug companies are actively buying up Chinese biotechs, often citing the speed of the country’s regulators.

People

Healthcare-focused investor Clarevia Ventures appointed Margaret Kaczor Andrew as venture partner. She previously spent 15 years at William Blair.

eGenesis, a developer of human-compatible engineered organs for transplantation, appointed Glenn S. Vraniak as chief financial officer and promoted Jennifer Bergheiser to chief commercial officer. Vraniak most recently served as CFO of Inversago Pharma. Bergheiser previously served as chief business officer at eGenesis.

Vyriad, a biotechnology company developing targeted genetic therapies for cancer and other serious diseases, promoted Luke Russell to president. He succeeds Stephen Russell, who will transition to chief scientific officer and executive chairman.

Exits

Clinical-stage genetic medicines company Passage Bio and Remix Therapeutics, which is developing a pipeline of novel small molecule therapies, have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction. Upon completion of the deal, the combined company plans to operate under the Remix Therapeutics name and will trade under the ticker symbol RMTX on the Nasdaq.

Bionyra Pharma, a Paris-headquartered biopharmaceutical startup advancing antibodies for diseases including atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel disease, launched with $165 million in Series A funding. Jeito Capital and Sofinnova Partners co-led the investment, which included participation from Arkin Bio, Sanofi Ventures, Sixty Degree Capital and others.

Assort Health, a San Francisco-based AI agents platform for patient journeys, scored $120 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Menlo Ventures led the round, which included contributions from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis and First Round Capital. JP Sanday, partner at Menlo Ventures, will join the Assort Health board.

Cadence, a New York-based startup automating the treatment of chronic disease for older adults, nabbed $100 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital.

Memento Medicines, a Boston-headquartered startup advancing novel antibody therapies for ophthalmology, closed a $93 million Series A round from investors including Forbion, RA Capital Management and Avego BioScience Capital.

Oblenio Bio, a startup pursuing broad immune reset as a transformative therapy for refractory autoimmune diseases, closed a $62 million Series B round. Pfizer Ventures led the investment, which saw participation from Deep Track Capital, GV and Aditum Bio.

xCures, an Oakland, Calif.-headquartered startup using AI to make patient data easily shareable across health systems, landed $46 million in Series B funding. Innovius Capital led the investment, which included additional support from Spring Mountain Capital and others.

NorthLinks Bio, a Boston-based startup developing antiviral preventive medicines for respiratory viral infections, picked up a $34 million investment led by RA Capital Management.

Prosper AI, a New York-headquartered AI platform that automates patient scheduling, insurance verification and patient billing, secured $30 million in Series A financing. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which included additional support from Base10 Partners, Emergence Capital, Y Combinator and Company Ventures.

Trimtech Therapeutics, a startup developing novel therapies that target and degrade protein aggregates associated with neurodegenerative diseases, added $14 million in seed funding, bringing the round total to $47 million. Investors included Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and BGF.

Pathway Labs, a startup building AI that helps clinicians catch heart disease earlier, was seeded with an $8.5 million investment led by AlleyCorp and Breyer Capital.

Ladder Health, a virtual-first pediatric care provider, was seeded with a $7 million investment led by Nina Capital.

• New Drugs Are Replacing Chemo for Aggressive Breast Cancer

• Sanofi Multiple Sclerosis Drug Gets EU Approval

• CDC Ends Hantavirus Response as U.S. Outbreak Risk Diminishes

• FDA Gives Third Rare-Disease Drug Another Shot, Regenxbio Says

• Healthcare Investors GHO, CBC Weigh New Global Fund to Tap Into Asia’s Boom

• When Diets Don’t Work: Parents Turn to Wegovy for Elementary School Kids

• I Don’t Expect My Grandchildren to Experience Dementia

• New human embryo editing advances require tough conversations on ethical boundaries (STAT)
   
• Doctors thought it was asthma. AI flagged a serious heart problem. (New York Times)
   
• Medicare’s AI push snarls patients and doctors in errors and delays (KFF Health News)
   
• Stripe, Anthropic, OpenAI back effort to stop respirtory infections (MIT Technology Review)

This newsletter was compiled by Matthew Strozier, Zachary Cole and Brian Gormley. 

Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, and Brian Gormley.

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