Double Shot Gives Spark Therapeutics a Jolt

Double Shot Gives Spark Therapeutics a Jolt

Spark Therapeutics is riding a double shot of positive news about its gene therapy treatment for RPE65-mediated inherited retinal disorders that’s given its stock a boost, pushing it near an all-time high. The first shot came when The Lancet published Phase III clinical trial data of voretigene neparvovec, the investigational, potential one-time gene therapy candidate…

Read More

AGTC Makes Moves with Cash in Hand

AGTC Makes Moves with Cash in Hand

As Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC) heads into the summer with encouraging results for two of its lead candidates using the adeno-associated virus-based gene technology for treatment of X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS) and achromatopsia, the company finds itself well positioned to fund the programs along with five others it has in the works as its cash…

Read More

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.…

Read More

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…

Read More

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…

Read More

Roche/Genentech’s Second Move to Protect Lucentis Franchise

With its patents on Lucentis set to expire in a few years and clinical trials of at least three Lucentis biosimilars underway, Roche’s recent acquisition of ForSight VISION4 is seen by many as the latest strategic move to protect its Lucentis franchise for the foreseeable future. The ForSight VISION4 acquisition gives Roche and its subsidiary,…

Read More

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…

Read More

Is Trump Opening New Front in War on Drug Prices?

Pharma executives were beaming as their stock prices soared in the days after Donald Trump’s poll-defying victory, and their sentiments rose even higher with the defeat of a California ballot initiative that would have instituted price controls on state-purchased drugs. Then Trump held his first post-election press conference last week, saying that pharma was “getting…

Read More

History of Intraoperative OCT

Pars plana vitrectomy is almost a half-century old, and the earliest probes were powered by batteries, said Cynthia A. Toth, MD, the Joseph A.C. Wadsworth professor of ophthalmology at Duke University Medical Center. OCT imaging has “revolutionized our pre- and postoperative assessment,” she said, “but while our tools have advanced, our microscopes have not.” Although…

Read More

Apellis Eyeing 2017 Release of Phase II Results

Cedric Francois, CEO, Apellis Pharmaceuticals, hopes to deliver positive results to the company’s Phase II clinical trials of APL-2, a peptide targeting the C3 inhibitor in the complement cascade as a treatment for geographic atrophy (GA). The company has fully enrolled the Filly trial of APL-2. (APL-1 is targeting COPD.) The 240 patients in the…

Read More

Graybug Could File GB-102 IND Next Year

Jeffrey Cleland, president and CEO, Graybug Vision, delivered an update on its two treatments for wet age-related macular degeneration (Wet AMD) and glaucoma. The company is working with an approved cancer treatment, Sutent, which has demonstrated the ability to restore vision in patients who also suffer from Wet AMD. An animal study of the company’s…

Read More

Catalyst Trying to Improve Drugs by Lowering Doses

Edwin Madison, PhD, chief scientific officer, Catalyst Biosciences, says the company is developing protease therapeutic agents that work via a catalytic rather than a stoichiometric mechanism of action. This enables Catalyst to develop therapeutics that could maintain efficacy while using much lower doses of drugs. For a given drug effect, the duration of action of…

Read More