austin-biotech
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Faeth Bet $92 Million That Cancer’s Escape Route Can Be Blocked
Single-target cancer drugs can teach tumors how to route around them. Faeth’s answer is PIKTOR - two oral medicines, three pathway nodes and a public-company-sized test of whether deeper blockade can stay tolerable.
Alafair Biosciences, Inc.
Alafair Biosciences is an Austin, Texas commercial-stage medical device company that makes bioresorbable, plant-based hydrogel implants to protect healing soft tissue after surgery. Built on its patented VersaCore hydrogel technology - a collagen-free, dye-free blend of naturally derived hyaluronic acid and alginate - the company's VersaWrap Hydrogel Sheet and VersaCoat Flowable Hydrogel create a non-constricting gliding interface around tendons, ligaments and peripheral nerves to limit postoperative tethering and help patients regain function. More than 40,000 VersaWrap implants have been used across orthopedic, spine, hand and plastic/reconstructive procedures.
Form Bio
Form Bio is an Austin-based computational life sciences company that builds AI-driven software to speed up the design, characterization, and manufacturing of genetic medicines, especially adeno-associated virus (AAV) cell and gene therapies. Spun out of Colossal Biosciences in 2022 with a $30M Series A, its platform lets scientists model billions of therapeutic vector designs in silico to improve efficacy, safety, and manufacturability before ever entering the lab, targeting the manufacturing bottleneck that drives the majority of FDA rejections in the field.
Jason Ehrlich
Jason Ehrlich is the co-founder and CEO of Ollin Biosciences, an Austin-based clinical-stage biopharma launched in September 2025 with $100 million to build best-in-disease eye medicines. An MD-PhD ophthalmologist trained at Princeton and Stanford, he spent a decade at Genentech/Roche helping shepherd retina drugs including Lucentis and the bispecific faricimab (Vabysmo), then served five years as chief medical and development officer at Kodiak Sciences. At Ollin he is taking direct aim at the market leader: in early 2026 his lead asset OLN324 beat faricimab head-to-head in a randomized Phase 1b study, drying retinas faster and deeper with a clean safety record.
Ollin Biosciences
Ollin Biosciences is an Austin-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company building a portfolio of best-in-disease therapies for vision-threatening eye diseases. Founded in 2023 and launched publicly in September 2025 with $100M in Series A financing, Ollin in-licenses validated drug candidates and races them through head-to-head trials against the market leaders. Its lead program, OLN324, is a VEGF/Ang2 bispecific antibody for wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema that posted superior anatomic results versus Roche's blockbuster Vabysmo in a Phase 1b study.