There’s something poetic about building a drug that beats the one you helped create — and that’s exactly what just happened in ophthalmology.
Ollin Biosciences just dropped final results from its Phase 1b JADE study, and they’re striking. OLN324, a VEGF/Ang2 bispecific antibody, went head-to-head against Roche/Genentech’s Vabysmo (faricimab) in patients with wet AMD and diabetic macular edema over 20 weeks. The result? Faster anatomic improvements, sustained vision gains, and fewer retreatments — in a randomized, controlled setting with over 150 patients.
That’s not a single-arm trial where you squint at historical comparisons. That’s a direct shootout.
DME disease absence at 12 weeks (JADE study)
90%
57%
Source: Phase 1b JADE study, randomized head-to-head, 150+ patients
Here’s where it gets really interesting. Ollin’s CEO, Jason Ehrlich, is a former Genentech ophthalmologist who supported faricimab’s development before leaving to run Kodiak Sciences. He founded Ollin in 2023 with a specific thesis: shrink the bispecific antibody format to about one-third the size, enabling higher molar dosing directly into the eye. More drug per injection, better Ang2 potency, same proven anti-VEGF backbone.
The company isn’t exactly bootstrapping this, either. Ollin launched publicly in September 2025 with a $100 million Series A led by ARCH Venture Partners, Mubadala Capital, and Monograph Capital. They’re partnered with Innovent Biologics to take OLN324 into global Phase 3 trials this year. And they’ve got a second asset — OLN102, a first-in-class bispecific for thyroid eye disease — licensed in a deal worth up to $440 million.
If the registrational data holds up anything like Phase 1b, Roche has a real fight on its hands in a retinal market worth billions. Watch this one.
The Biotech Voyager
Early-stage biotech signals, personalized.
The signals that matter to you — contextualized and written directly to you — so you cut through the noise and immediately understand why it matters.
