AXIM Rolls Medical Marijuana Ball in Ophthalmology

AXIM Rolls Medical Marijuana Ball in Ophthalmology

Medical marijuana has quickly gained acceptance as a viable treatment for a variety of health conditions, such as the side effects of chemotherapy, the neurodegenerative effects of Alzheimer’s disease, certain seizures and chronic pain without the addictive effects of opioids. But in ophthalmology, medical marijuana has encountered the headwinds of controversy. The American Glaucoma Society…

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How Regeneron Aims to Stay on Message With VR/AR APP

How Regeneron Aims to Stay on Message with VR/AR App

Virtual reality has been used to train surgeons, to evaluate balance control and associated fall risk in glaucoma patients, and, more recently, to create simulations that allow users to better understand the visual effects of various eye diseases. To the latter, Regeneron and Intouch Solutions have developed and released the In My Eyes smartphone app.…

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Allergan Makes a Play in Gene Editing

With its licensing agreement to develop genome-editing programs with Editas Medicine to treat retinal diseases, Allergan has made a move to partner with one of the leading players in the CRISPR genome-editing space at a time when the field is poised to take off. That’s not Allergan’s hype. A recent report by San Francisco-based Grand…

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Clearside Goes All in for CLS-TA

Clearside Goes All In for CLS-TA

Late last year, when developers of agents that combined anti-platelet derived growth factor with an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-PDGF/anti-VEGF) to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) disclosed disappointing trial results, Daniel White, president and CEO of Clearside Biomedical, took notice. At the time, Clearside had just raised $20 million. The Alpharetta, GA, biotech was…

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What’s Behind the Heat-up in Glaucoma Innovation

Kicking off the sixth annual Glaucoma 360-New Horizons Forum held recently in San Francisco, co-founder and co-chair Adrienne Graves boldly proclaimed, “Glaucoma is hot.” However, over the past few years, glaucoma has been anything but hot. Stone cold may be more like it. Innovation had been sorely lacking and the $5 billion annual global market…

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Is DR Just the Start for Google Brain?

A team of investigators recently reported online in the Journal of the American Medical Association1 that a Google algorithm allows computers to diagnose diabetic retinopathy (DR) using retina photos. The technology will never replace doctors, but Google hopes it will assist them, especially in underserved areas. Google’s first priority with this technology is to distribute…

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Encore Vision Delivers Big Payday to Angel Investors

Big winners in Novartis AG’s acquisition of Encore Vision for $465 million are members of a network of angel investors in Fort Worth, TX, that bet $4 million on the presbyopia-correcting eye drop that Encore Vision president and CEO Bill Burns has been working on for about nine years. The $4 million the Cowtown Angels…

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Alcon Turnaround Has Novartis Exploring Spin-off

In announcing that Novartis AG is exploring spinning off its Alcon eye-care business, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez acknowledged that Alcon has made progress in the past year in executing its turnaround plan under CEO Mike Ball. Novartis revealed it is exploring options for Alcon that include spinning it off, issuing an IPO or keeping it,…

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