Eyevensys, a developer of gene therapies for ophthalmic diseases, announced today that it raised $12 million in a Series B plus funding round.

The funding, led by Korea Investment Partners, also includes existing investors who will join the round and support the accelerated development of Eyevensys’ EYS809 program for treating wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and the advancement of its EYS611 program targeting geographic atrophy (GA) and retinitis pigmentosa.

Paris-based Eyevensys develops a non-viral gene therapy ocular drug delivery platform designed to use an electrotransfection system to deliver DNA plasmids encoding therapeutic proteins into the ciliary muscle to sustainably treat major eye diseases.

The platform allows the ciliary muscle to express and secrete the protein to the back of the eye at therapeutic levels for a duration of longer than six months.

“We’re thrilled to announce this funding round, which will help us move forward in our mission to develop life-changing solutions for patients with debilitating eye diseases,” Eyevensys CEO Dr. Patricia Zilliox said in a news release. “We are also excited to have the support of Korea Investment Partners and our existing investors as we pivot to refocus on our additional programs focused on wet AMD and retinitis pigmentosa.

“This funding will allow us to demonstrate that treating ophthalmic conditions doesn’t have to be invasive and risky and that our approach is more convenient than other intraocular drug delivery approaches.”