Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund invests in Eyevensys

Paris, France-based Eyevensys, a developer of a new process for non-viral gene therapy using electrotransfer that enables prolonged production of therapeutic proteins for the treatment of ocular disease, has received an equity investment by the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF).

Neither the value nor the size of the stake has been disclosed. However, the French firm says that Michel Pairet, German family-owned drug major Boehringer Ingelheim’s head of non-clinical research and development, has been appointed to its board of directors.

This equity investment by BIVF marks the start of Eyevensys’ next round of funding, which is
planned to take place before the end of the second quarter of 2013 and aims to fund the business through to completion of Phase IIa clinical trials. The Eyevensys investment is BIVF’s sixth since its launch in 2010 and its first investment in a French company. BIVF had previously taken a stake in Inserm Transfert Initiative, an investment company specializing in seed capital for start-ups coming out of academic research and a past investor in Eyevensys.