Ocunexus Seeking Support for Phase IIb of Oral GA Agent

Ocunexus Therapeutics’ CEO Brian Levy, OD, MSc, provided an update on Ocunexus Therapeutics’ two lead candidates during the Company Showcase 3 session at OIS@AAO 2017. Xiflam is an oral small molecule agent for treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) in age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema that is ready to move into a Phase IIB trial, while  peptagon is an intravitreal peptide5 agent still in the preclinical phase. Both act on the connexin43 (Cx43) hemichannel and inflammasome pathway of inflammation, and they’ve shown equivalency in reducing pathological ATP (activating the inflammasome) release, Dr. Levy said. Ocunexus is seeking financial support to fund the Phase IIb trial of oral Xiflam for GA and DME.