A genetics-first drug company betting that age-related macular degeneration isn't one disease at all - and that reading the retina precisely is how you finally treat it.
Two people walk into an eye clinic with the same diagnosis: age-related macular degeneration. One holds steady for a decade. The other loses central vision in a few years. Character Biosciences starts from that gap. If a single label can hide such different biology, the company argues, then the label - not the patient - is the problem.
Founded in 2019 as Clover Therapeutics, a research subsidiary of Medicare Advantage insurer Clover Health, the company rebranded to Character Biosciences in 2022 and set out on an unusual path. Rather than start with a molecule, it started with data. Character assembled an observational network of more than 150 ophthalmology centers across the United States and enrolled over 6,500 consented patients, pairing their genetics with longitudinal clinical records and retinal imaging.
On top of that dataset it layered AI-enabled biomarker quantification - software that reads retinal images to measure the subtle features that track disease progression. The result is a map: which genetic drivers push a patient toward advanced disease, and which do not. That map lets Character reclassify a broad diagnosis into genetically defined subtypes, and then design drugs aimed at the specific biology of each.
"By identifying genetic modifiers of disease progression, we can develop therapeutics to more precisely target disease root causes," says co-founder and CEO Cheng Zhang. It is a simple sentence describing a hard idea: find what modifies the outcome, then aim there.
Investors have bought the method before the medicine. In March 2025 Character closed an oversubscribed $93 million Series B co-led by aMoon and Luma Group; by September the round had been extended past $110 million with Sanofi Ventures joining. Category incumbent Bausch + Lomb signed a therapeutics collaboration and put money in as well. For a company whose lead drugs are still approaching the clinic, that is a vote for the engine, not just the output.
The retina is one of the few organs a doctor can photograph, non-invasively and in living color, over years. Character treats that as a data advantage most of medicine doesn't get - and runs it through four connected stages.
Sequence patients and compute polygenic risk to find genetic drivers of progression.
Longitudinal records from 150+ clinics show who actually progressed, and how fast.
Machine-read retinal biomarkers quantify disease features image by image.
Reclassify AMD into genetic subtypes; design drugs and trials to match.
A best-in-class complement inhibitor designed to slow the progression of geographic atrophy in advanced dry AMD - the point where central vision is already being lost. Advancing toward Phase 1/Phase 2 studies.
A first-in-class lipid regulator aimed at preventing progression to advanced AMD - intervening earlier on the disease timeline, before the worst damage is done. Advancing toward the clinic.
The discovery engine itself: genetics, clinical data, imaging and AI-read biomarkers integrated across thousands of AMD and glaucoma patients to reveal genetic drivers and define subtypes.
The same approach extends to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and, over time, additional progressive polygenic diseases where genetics shapes who progresses and why.
Investors: aMoon · Luma Group · Bausch + Lomb · Sanofi Ventures · Innovation Endeavors · Catalio Capital · S32 · KdT Ventures · Jefferson Life Sciences
Character is a venture-funded, clinical-stage drug developer. It builds a proprietary pipeline on its genetics-and-data platform and monetizes through pharma partnerships - upfront payments plus development, regulatory and sales-based milestones and royalties, as in its Bausch + Lomb collaboration - and, ultimately, through therapeutic products advancing to market. Revenue today is pre-commercial; the asset being funded is the platform's ability to produce differentiated drugs.
Founded as a research subsidiary of Medicare Advantage insurer Clover Health to develop treatments for chronic diseases.
Emerged as an independent precision-medicine company with an $18M financing and a focus on dry AMD and beyond.
Dr. Laura Carter joined as Chief Scientific Officer as the pipeline took shape.
Signed an AMD therapeutics collaboration and closed an oversubscribed $93M Series B to push CTX114 and CTX203 toward the clinic.
Added Sanofi Ventures and four senior executives, bringing total round capital above $110M ahead of first clinical studies.
Profile compiled from public sources · Figures are approximate where noted · Last updated 2026