Rayton Bio Secures Dalton Venture Angel Round, Continues Leading Innovation in Long-Acting Sustained-Release Ocular Drug Delivery | Dalton News

Dalton News

Recently, Shenzhen Retina Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ("Retina Bio") announced the completion of a tens of millions of RMB angel funding round. This round was jointly invested by Dalton Venture, Qinzhi Capital, the National High-Performance Medical Device Innovation Center, and JenKem Technology (688356.SH). The funds will be used to advance the company's core pipeline through clinical trials, and to accelerate the technical development and pipeline expansion of its iSus® sustained-release platform.

Founded in 2021, Retina Bio is built around biodegradable long-acting sustained-release technology for ophthalmic applications, dedicated to solving the pain point of frequent dosing required by conventional eye drops. Its core platform technology, iSus®, enables single-dose drug sustained-release delivery on the ocular surface and in the fundus lasting from several days to several months, significantly improving patient compliance and treatment outcomes.

Eye drop administration is a typical treatment modality for ocular diseases, yet effective drug ingredients have short residence time on the ocular surface, low bioavailability, and slow onset. For patients with chronic eye conditions, strict long-term adherence to prescribed dosing schedules is difficult. After cataract and refractive surgeries, patients must frequently administer anti-inflammatory and analgesic medications for 3-4 weeks to complete perioperative care. Various subjective and objective factors can lead to poor medication compliance and suboptimal treatment outcomes — a problem widely recognized by ophthalmologists, creating urgent demand for new therapeutic approaches capable of stable long-term drug release.

Globally, only three biodegradable ophthalmic sustained-release drug therapies developed by overseas companies have received regulatory approval: Allergan's anterior chamber implant for glaucoma treatment and vitreous implant for diabetic macular edema, and Ocular Therapeutix's intracanalicular insert for post-surgical anti-inflammatory and analgesic care. The scarcity of approved products stems primarily from the inherently multidisciplinary, long-cycle, and low-success-rate nature of R&D in this field. Developing biodegradable sustained-release drugs involves materials science, pharmaceutics, chemical engineering, and medicine, presenting numerous technical challenges — including biocompatibility and biodegradability of materials, drug stability and release control, and quality control of micro-unit chemical processes. The interplay of these factors makes the development process complex and highly uncertain.

Over three years, the Retina Bio team overcame multiple core technical challenges in formulation工艺, degradation cycle control, and automated mass production, successfully developing the iSus® biodegradable long-acting sustained-release technology platform, which can be widely applied to long-cycle sustained-release drug needs in human and veterinary ophthalmology going forward.

Its first product targets moderate-to-severe dry eye disease, providing both the physical function of a punctal plug and the pharmacological effect of immunosuppression, with a single administration lasting several months and reducing patients' daily multiple-dosing burden. The elegant design ensures comfortable and stable insertion, improving compliance and therapeutic efficacy while offering physicians a more innovative, efficient, and accessible treatment option.

Regarding this funding round, Dr. Yanbo Ling, founder of Retina Bio, stated: "We sincerely thank all investors in this round for their trust and support. We will accelerate the clinical advancement of our first product, providing ophthalmologists with more efficient treatment tools and addressing the urgent needs of China's 120 million moderate-to-severe dry eye patients. Building on the iSus® platform, we will explore further possibilities in long-acting ophthalmic sustained-release drug delivery, accelerate the R&D and commercialization of innovative products, and strive to become a leader in the field of ophthalmic drug delivery."

Dalton Venture commented: "Ophthalmology is one of our key focus areas in healthcare investing. Retina Bio's technology platform, through the modulation of polymer material formulations, has the potential to achieve variable-duration sustained release for different drugs, thereby providing comprehensive solutions for long-acting drug delivery across numerous ocular diseases. Its first product treats dry eye disease through an innovative drug-device combination approach, with significant market potential. We are pleased to participate in this investment and look forward to working alongside Retina to bring innovative products to market, delivering more comfortable treatment experiences and better therapeutic benefits to patients."

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ID: daltonventure

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