Biopharmaceutical firm SpyGlass Pharma Inc., which last year closed one of the larger funding rounds for a local life science company, plans to boost its office presence this year with a new base in Irvine.
The ophthalmology company, the developer of a new type of intraocular lens (IOL), recently inked a lease for a new office at 15326 Alton Parkway, a two-story building just off the Santa Ana (5) Freeway in the Irvine Spectrum.
SpyGlass will occupy the entire building, which is about 33,000 square feet, according to brokerage data. The company has been operating out of a smaller building in Aliso Viejo.
The company hasn’t disclosed whether it is keeping its current space, or if its headquarters are moving to Irvine. Company representatives declined to comment on the lease last week.
The Irvine office was previously occupied by device maker Axonics and once held the headquarters of homebuilder CalAtlantic.
The lease marks another notable recent leasing win for Irvine Co., with OC companies that have landed large funding deals.
This fall, Field AI, a Nvidia and Bill Gates-backed robotics startup that landed $400 million in funds over the summer, completed a lease to move to a 41,000-square-foot Irvine Co. property in the Spectrum area of the city. Field AI, which now has a $2 billion valuation, previously operated in Mission Viejo before coming out of stealth mode last year.
Commercialization Goal
The move to Irvine comes on the heels of SpyGlass Pharma raising a $75 million Series D round last summer, which brings its total funding to over $200 million, with most of those funds raised since 2023.
The company says it’s developing the world’s first IOL-mounted drug delivery platform capable of continuously eluting glaucoma medication into the eyes for up to three years.
Its technology originated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and was spun off by Dr. Malik Kahook and Glen Sussman, who co-founded the company in 2019.
The latest funding for SpyGlass is expected to help the company fund two large Phase 3 trials and set up the firm for potential commercialization of its products in a few years.
CEO Patrick Mooney told the Business Journal last year that the company’s drug delivery platform would be a “successful FDA-approved commercial product” by 2029.
New CFO
SpyGlass has been adding to its executive team of late. This month, it announced the appointment of Jean-Frédéric Viret, Ph.D., as the company’s CFO.
Viret “is a seasoned CFO with a proven track record of creating substantial value for companies through the development and commercialization phases and building strong finance and accounting functions,” the company said.
His prior roles include CFO of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Blade Therapeutics and Coherus BioSciences now Coherus Oncology (NASDAQ: CHRS).
Notable local advisors to the company include Tom Frinzi, the former CEO of Lake Forest’s Staar Surgical, and Sam Garg, vice chair of Clinical Ophthalmology and Medical Director at UCI Gavin Herbert Eye Institute (Nasdaq: STAA).
Diagnostics Co. Expansion
SpyGlass Pharma’s move marks one of two notable life science firms that have relocated their base to the Irvine Spectrum of late.
Last week, EmeritusDX, a cancer diagnostics company, announced the opening of its new 26,000-square-foot headquarters at 181 Technology Drive.
The office, part of Irvine Company’s Freeway Technology Park campus alongside the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, more than doubles the space of its previous 10,000 square foot facility in Lake Forest.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being at the forefront of cancer diagnostics and information, and this move provides the infrastructure we need to maintain that leadership,” CEO Robert Embree said in a statement.
The company says its customers include hospital and private pathology laboratories, biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and contract research and pharmaceutical development organizations.
