Inside Tarsier Pharma's EIC Accelerator Project on Uveitis Drops

Steroid eye drops are the standard treatment for a flare of uveitis, an inflammation inside the eye that can cause blindness, and they carry a known side effect: they raise the pressure in the eye and can cause glaucoma. Tarsius Pharma, a start-up from Zichron Yaakov in northern Israel, set out to replace them with a drop that calms the immune system instead of suppressing it. In the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2 cut-off of 5 June 2019 it won a grant of €2,423,050 for TRS, a €3,461,500 project to run its first clinical trial, according to CORDIS. The company is the only beneficiary named for the project in the European Commission's list of June 2019 winners.

The EU-funded trials happened. What came after went less well. In 2021 the company renamed itself Tarsier Pharma, and in August 2023 its Phase 3 trial missed its primary endpoint. In 2026 it filed to list on NYSE American; the last amendment to that filing is dated 16 July 2026, and no pricing has followed, according to the company's SEC filing history.

Where Tarsier Stands in 2026

Tarsier is still operating, but its own financial statements doubt it can keep going without new money. The Israeli Corporations Authority lists Tarsier Pharma Ltd as active, with an annual report filed for 2026 and the Zichron Yaakov address, according to the Authority's open company register. Its audited accounts, filed with the SEC in its F-1/A of 16 July 2026, show a net loss of $5.07 million in 2025, up from $2.46 million in 2024, and cash of $1.999 million at the end of 2025. The notes state that these circumstances "raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern".

The planned listing is meant to fix that. In May 2026 the company set terms of 5 million shares at $8 to $10, about $45 million, on NYSE American under the ticker TARX, with Konik Capital Partners as sole bookrunner, according to Renaissance Capital; the July amendment raised the base offering to 5,555,555 shares in the same range. IPO calendars gave dates of 9 July and 15 July 2026, according to IPOX. No final prospectus has been filed, and StockAnalysis still shows TARX as an upcoming IPO with no trading data. Whether the offering was postponed or is still in the market could not be verified.

The company is small. The prospectus counts seven members of senior management, of whom three are full-time employees, two part-time and two senior advisors, plus one consultant, and says Tarsier has no office and works fully remotely. It also owes its chief executive $678,000, a $117,000 interest-free loan from April 2022 and about $561,000 of deferred pay, which it plans to repay from the IPO proceeds.

The Technology: A Worm Molecule Against Eye Inflammation

Tarsier's drug, dazdotuftide, joins two molecules. One is phosphorylcholine, which parasitic worms secrete to damp the immune response of their host; the other is tuftsin, a short peptide made by the human spleen. According to the prospectus, the conjugate shifts macrophages, the immune cells that drive the inflammation, from an inflammatory "M1" state to a healing "M2" state, and it does not bind the glucocorticoid receptors through which steroids raise eye pressure. TRS01 is the eye-drop form; TRS02 is a slow-release injection into the back of the eye, still in preclinical work, with a first trial planned for 2027.

The molecule was not invented at Tarsier. The company holds an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual and royalty-free licence to the dazdotuftide patent family from TPCERA Ltd, signed in January 2016, a month before Tarsius was incorporated, the prospectus says. The European Commission granted an orphan designation for non-infectious uveitis on 13 November 2019, during the EIC project; the company announced it on BioSpace.

What the EIC Grant Paid For

The TRS grant agreement was signed on 3 September 2019, with the project start set at 1 July 2019 and ending on 30 June 2021. The plan was narrow: a Phase I/IIa trial, with uveitic glaucoma, uveitis in patients who already have glaucoma, as the first target, and the results used "to secure financing for further clinical development". The Israeli tech daily Calcalist reported the €2.4 million award in September 2019, quoting Haim-Langford, whom it called co-founder, that it would fund the "first in human" trial; the prospectus describes her as the sole founder.

The final CORDIS report says a Phase I/II dose-ranging trial was completed "on 34 patients, in five clinical sites", that GMP drug substance and four batches of eye drops were produced, that a clinical study report was delivered, and that the orphan designation, two new patent applications and a paper on a grading scale for eye inflammation followed. ClinicalTrials.gov shows a different split: two Tarsier-sponsored Phase 1/2 studies that started in February 2020, one in 37 patients with inflammation after cataract surgery and one in 16 patients with active anterior uveitis. The 2026 prospectus lists the same two trials with the same numbers. Neither enrolled uveitic glaucoma patients as a specific group, and how the report's 34 patients relate to these 53 is not explained in any public source.

The 16-patient uveitis study is the one the EU publicised. CORDIS reported in October 2020 that it showed "significant improvement" in inflammation cells, pain and visual acuity. With 8 patients per dose, the prospectus treats both Phase 1/2 studies as safety studies, and the drops were well tolerated in each.

1. GMP drug substance and eye dropsDeliveredFour batches, per the CORDIS report.
2. First-in-human Phase I/IIa trialDeliveredTwo completed Phase 1/2 studies on ClinicalTrials.gov, 2020.
3. Uveitic glaucoma as first indicationPartlyGlaucoma patients first entered the later Phase 3, as a subgroup.
4. Financing for further clinical workDeliveredA 142-patient Phase 3 ran from 2021 to 2023.
5. Over €700M revenue by 2028Not on trackNo approved product; next Phase 3 not yet started.

The Phase 3 That Missed

TRS4Vision, the trial the EIC money led to, enrolled 142 patients at 30 sites in the US and Europe between September 2021 and June 2023, randomised two to one between TRS01 and prednisolone acetate steroid drops. In August 2023 the company said it had missed its primary endpoint, complete clearance of inflammatory cells at week four, as reported by Ophthalmology Times and Clinical Trials Arena. The 2026 prospectus is plain about it: TRS01 "was inferior to steroids in resolution of inflammation alone". It also reports that 64% of TRS01 patients reached zero or trace cells by day 28, that pain fell about as much as with steroids, and that eye pressure rose less often.

Tarsier built its next step on that pressure signal. In January 2024 it said the FDA had agreed a Special Protocol Assessment for a new Phase 3, Tarsier-04, of up to 300 patients in the US, with eye pressure against steroids as the primary endpoint and inflammation as a secondary one, according to HCPLive and the company's announcement. Nearly three years later the trial has not started: the prospectus expects to begin it in the fourth quarter of 2026 and report top-line results in 2027, and it is not registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The prospectus also discloses that the FDA turned down a request for Breakthrough Therapy designation.

The pressure data come with a caveat the company states itself: they are post hoc and exploratory. The figures above cover only patients whose inflammation cleared by day 28, a subgroup chosen after the trial ended.

The Money

Tarsier has never had revenue. By the end of 2025 it had accumulated a deficit of $26.9 million. In 2025 it spent $2.01 million on research and $0.54 million on administration; the rest of the $5.07 million loss was financing costs, mainly a $2.46 million loss on converting notes into shares. Cash came from convertible instruments and SAFEs: $2.2 million in 2024 and $2.1 million in 2025. The prospectus names three holders above 5% before the offering: Alkaloida, a subsidiary of India's Sun Pharmaceutical, with 20.06%, Oriella Ltd with 10.8% and AJ Tarsier Investment LLC with 8.13%. The 2026 prospectus does not mention the EU grant. Tarsier is not on the EIC Fund's list of invested companies, which matches a grant-only award.

Why It Matters for Europe

Tarsier is an Israeli company, eligible for the EIC through Israel's association to Horizon 2020. Its drug substance and drug product are made by contract manufacturers in Europe, the prospectus says, and its Phase 3 recruited in France and Germany as well as the US. Its EU orphan designation would bring market exclusivity if TRS01 is ever approved in the EU. But its regulatory and commercial plan now runs through the FDA and a US listing, and its first market is a group of about 450 US uveitis specialists. Any European launch is a later step, after the company has "received their guidelines" from the EMA on manufacturing.

The Verdict

Tarsier Pharma and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.