Eyenovia Eyes $35M IPO for Ocular Drug-Delivery Tech

Clinical stage ophthalmic company Eyenovia is eying a $35 million initial public offering.

On Thursday, the New York-based company filed a plan with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $35 million in the IPO in order to fund clinical programs for its eye treatments which uses piezo-printing technology to deliver medication to the eyes, Drug Delivery Business News reported.

Among those programs highlighted by the company in the SEC prospectus are a Phase III trial of its medical device technology known as MicroPost. The trial would determine if the device could become the first FDA-approved treatment for Chronic Angle Closure Glaucoma (CACG). The company said it intends to begin the clinical trial in the second half of 2018 subject to meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Also the company said it would use the funds to study MicroStat, a fixed combination micro-formulation product used to dilate the eyes during an eye exam.

On its website, the company said its high-precision microdosing is designed for “more efficient and gentler treatments for the eye with the delivery of 80 percent less unnecessary drug and preservatives.”

The company also said it will use the funds from the IPO, as well as $74 million it has available, to scale-up engineering and manufacturing for pivotal trials and potential FDA approval, as well as focus on other product development, such as its MicroTears technology.

Eyenovia was formed in 2014.  In October. the company published positive results of its EYE 102 Phase II in the peer-reviewed journal Therapeutic Delivery. The article highlights the company’s micro-dosing delivery methods.

“Micro-dosing avoids medication spillage from overloading the eye’s maximum tear volume of 7−10 µL, which is routinely exceeded by conventional eye dropper-delivery – overdosing the eye by more than 300 percent compared to physiologic tear film capacity. Reducing the volume avoids potential complications and may increase local absorption by reducing drug dilution from tears and tear loss due to blinking and drainage,” Dr. Louis R. Pasquale, a professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study manuscript, said.

Eynovia hopes to list the stock on the Nasdaq Exchange under the ticker symbol EYEN.

Although Eyenovia is looking to raise $35 million, the company said that it will need to raise additional funding in order to receive approval for our product candidates.

“If we are unable to raise additional capital when needed, we may be required to delay, limit, reduce or terminate our product development or future commercialization efforts, or grant rights to develop and market product candidates that we would otherwise develop and market ourselves,” the company said in its prospectus.