Ray Therapeutics raises USD 125 million, Novo Holdings doubles down on optogenetic eye gene therapy
The US company has closed an upsized, oversubscribed Series B to advance its optogenetic gene therapy pipeline for blinding retinal diseases with Novo Holdings reinforcing a strong Nordic investment footprint in late‑stage ophthalmology.
April 28, 2026
Ray’s Series B, announced 21 April, was led by Janus Henderson Investors, joined by new investors Adage Capital Management, Franklin Templeton, Invus and Marshall Wace, alongside existing backers 4BIO Capital, Deerfield, MRL Ventures Fund, Norwest, Novo Holdings and Platanus.
Optogenetic therapy partially recovered visual function in a blind patient
The patient, suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, is a participant in the ongoing PIONEER Phase I/II clinical trial of GenSight Biologics’ GS030 optogenetic therapy. These groundbreaking results, from among others biopharma company GenSight Biologics, the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel and the Institut de la Vision at Sorbonne Université/Inserm/CNRS), Paris, were published in Nature […]
Will gene therapy, implants and stem cells bring back sight?
For a long time, restoring vision has been like a search for the holy grail for scientists. And for many patients, being diagnosed with a severe retinal disease has meant progressive, irreversible vision loss. However, the past decade has seen some of the clearest evidence so far that vision loss can be partially restored, not just preserved.
The Berkeley‑based company is developing one‑time intravitreal optogenetic gene therapies such as RTx‑015 for retinitis pigmentosa, which holds FDA RMAT designation and is now being financed toward registrational development, as well as RTx‑021 for Stargardt disease and geographic atrophy AMD.
This text was partly produced with the help of AI and fact-checked by NLS.
Published: April 28, 2026
