$37 million raised for start up of Optherion Inc.

New Haven, CT-Optherion, Inc has raised $37 million in start-up financing. The company is developing products to diagnose and treat dry and wet age-related macular degeneration.

Founded following discoveries published in 2005 linking the role of complement factor H (CFH) and complement factor B (CFB), the company's intellectual property estate is based on discoveries at the University of Iowa by Dr. Gregory Hageman and at Yale University and Rockefeller University by Dr. Josephine Hoh as well as other universities.

Capital financing sources include Quaker Bioventures, Philadelphia; Domain Associates, Princeton, NJ, and San Diego; Johnson and Johnson Development Corp., New Brunswick NJ.

Optherion's chief scientific officer is Dr. Hageman, the scientific founder of Optherion and a co-discoverer of the relationship of the relationship of the genetics of CFH and CFB do AMD. He is the Iowa Entrepreneurial Endowed professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa.