Ollin Biosciences launched on Wednesday with $100 million in its coffers to advance a pair of China-sourced assets — one designed to take on an established leader in the eye disease space, while the second could be the first to address the underlying pathology in Graves' disease. ARCH Venture Partners, Mubadala Capital and Monograph Capital led the startup's initial financing. "With Ollin, we have assembled a true ophthalmology development engine by bringing together a world-class team with the capital and tools to acquire and advance next-generation product candidates,” said Paul Berns, ARCH's managing director and the board chair at Ollin.Better than Vabysmo?Licensed from Innovent Biologics, Ollin’s lead programme OLN324 is a VEGF/Ang2 bispecific antibody in development for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DME).While the candidate goes after the same targets as Roche's Vabysmo (faricimab), Ollin believes OLN324 has "substantially higher anti-Ang2 potency," as well as a "smaller protein format," which together could make it best-in-class for disease control. Results from a Chinese dose escalation study in patients with DME showed that OLN324 has a favourable safety profile, and also demonstrated "promising vision and anatomic improvements," Ollin said. The biotech has already enrolled over 150 patients with AMD or DME in the Phase Ib JADE trial, which is a head-to-head study comparing OLN324 against Vabysmo. Because Ollin is testing its asset at higher molar doses than Roche's, it expects OLN324 to have greater target coverage and extended durability. Topline data are expected in the first quarter of 2026. Ollin has a ways to go, however, to unseat Vabysmo — which itself has been crowding out former eye disease leader, Regeneron's Eylea. Roche recorded about $2.6 billion in sales for Vabysmo for the first half of the year, compared with about $2.2 billion in combined sales between Eylea and a high-dose formulation (see – Spotlight On: Roche's fastest growing drugs and Vital Signs: Can Regeneron break its CRL streak?).Going after Graves'The biotech's second programme is a potentially first-in-class bispecific antibody targeting TSHR and IGF-1R. Ollin licensed exclusive, ex-China rights to OLN102 (formerly VBS-102) from Chinese firm VelaVigo in an April deal worth up to $440 million.The company is developing OLN102 for thyroid eye disease (TED), and it also thinks the candidate has the potential to address the underlying autoimmune thyroid dysfunction characteristic of Graves' disease. Because OLN102 precisely inhibits both TSHR and IGF-1R in affected tissues, it may have better safety and improved efficacy compared with existing treatments for TED, Ollin said. It plans to bring the candidate into the clinic next year. "We believe our first bispecific programmes present a tremendous opportunity to improve patient care with medicines that target more than one pathway, given the multi-factorial nature of many eye diseases," said CEO Jason Ehrlich. He previously served as senior group medical director, global head of clinical ophthalmology at Roche's Genentech unit. Fresh funds for CharacterAt a time when private US biotechs have struggled to raise VC funding, Ollin's megaround stands out as a positive sign — and it wasn't the only ophthalmology company to raise funds on Wednesday.Character Biosciences also brought its series B into megaround territory. The company had nabbed a $93-million series B in March, but a fresh extension on Wednesday, which saw participation from Sanofi Ventures, brought the round's total to more than $110 million. The biotech is developing precision medicines, informed by genetics, to treat dry AMD.