Avalanche Biotechnologies, an ocular gene therapy company based in Menlo Park California, have announced the completion of a $55M fund raising. The company will use the funds to further advance their lead product, AVA-101, a gene therapy treatment delivering a VEGF inhibitor to the retina for the treatment of wet AMD. In addition, the company plans too use the fresh funds to build manufacturing and clinical infrastructure for a number of other pipeline programmes under development. Founded in 2006, Avalanche is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the “delivery of therapeutic proteins to the eye to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD)”, and other ocular disorders, such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal degeneration, and glaucoma.