Avalanche’s Post-AMD Pivot Takes Step Outside Ophthalmology

Avalanche’s Post-AMD Pivot Takes Step Outside Ophthalmology - OIS Article

How far will Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc.’s pivot take it outside of ophthalmology? Following the release of disappointing topline results of its lead gene therapy candidate for age-related macular degeneration last June, Avalanche Biotechnologies has undertaken a series of significant pivots to right its ship. After releasing those results, the Menlo Park, CA, biotech company underwent…

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Exploring the Keys to Combination Therapies in Retina

OIS@AAO - Combination Therapies for Wet AMD & DME

The keys to developing combination therapies to treat retinal diseases lie in clinicians being able to better identify biomarkers for disease progression, developing strategies for staging disease, and finding a place for agents that act on disease pathways other than vascular endothelial growth factor, say ophthalmology leaders. Participants at a breakfast panel at OIS@AAO explored…

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Next Few Months Important for Clearside

The next few months will be important for Clearside Biomedical, one of the companies pioneering drug delivery to the suprachoroidal space. The company expects by the end of this month to receive topline data from its Phase II Dogwood trial that is evaluating safety and efficacy of CLS-TA in macular edema associated with non-infectious uveitis.…

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Saunders Seen As Key Man in Pfizer-Allergan Mashup

Saunders Seen As Key Man in Pfizer-Allergan Mashup

Last week, Pfizer and Allergan executives gave us a lot to chew on over the Thanksgiving weekend. The $160 billion combination will create the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, a behemoth comprising at least one element – Allergan – that has had a significant interest in ophthalmology. Allergan – the new Allergan that emerged from the…

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Opthea Taking New Approach to Combat Wet AMD

Megan Baldwin, PhD, Managing Director and CEO of Opthea, gives an update on OPT-302, a soluble receptor consisting of the first three extracellular domains of human VEGFR-3 linked to the Fc region of hIgG1. Baldwin explains how OPT-302 potently and specifically blocks VEGF-C and VEGF-D from binding and activating VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3, making it a…

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Welcome & Chairman’s 2015 Year in Review

Presenter: Emmett T. Cunningham Jr., MD, PhD, MPH Dr. Cunningham joined Clarus Ventures with 20+ years in the biomedical and biopharmaceutical sectors. Prior, Dr. Cunningham was the SVP, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals. View Full Profile

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Saunders Promises ‘Greater Impact’ on Ophthalmology

With the planned combination of Pfizer and Allergan to create the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, Brent Saunders, a key player in two significant acquisitions of eye care firms over the past three years, will assume a leading role in the combined company. Saunders, president and CEO of Allergan, will serve as president and COO of…

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Vision Medicines

Vision Medicines is working on developing two agents for the treatment of ocular diseases: VM100 for treatment of geographic atrophy and intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and VM200 for treatment of Stargardt disease. VM100 is a monoclonal antibody whose mechanism of action is to clear retinal amyloid (A beta) and its complement. VM100 can be…

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Translatum Medicus

Presenter: Shelley Boyd, MD, FRCSC Shelley Boyd, MD, FRCSC, is an Ophthalmologist specializing in diseases of the retina and founding President & CSO of Translatum Medicus Inc(TMi). She trained at the University of Toronto, with fellowships at Moorfields Eye Hospital, UK and the Scripps Research Institute, California. View Full Profile

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Acucela

Participant: Ryo Kubota, MD, PhD Acucela is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that specializes in discovering and developing novel therapeutics to treat and slow the progression of sight-threatening ophthalmic diseases affecting millions of individuals worldwide. View Full Profile

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Ocata Therapeutics

Ocata Therapeutics, which has trademarked the term Regenerative Ophthalmology, is developing stem cell therapies for Stargardt macular degeneration, dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and myopic macular degeneration, Chief Medical Officer Eddy Anglade, MD, reported at OIS@AAO. The company’s intellectual property portfolio includes pluripotent stem cell platforms – hESC and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) –…

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Circadian Technologies (Opthea)

Participant: Megan Baldwin Dr. Megan Baldwin is CEO/Managing Director of Circadian Technologies (Opthea) and has over 19 years of experience in preclinical and clinical development of therapies for cancer and eye diseases. View Full Profile

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