Here's a look at some of the latest news regarding ophthalmic drugs and therapies from the past week.
- BioTime, Inc. has formed a new subsidiary, AgeX Therapeutics, Inc., to develop its programs focused on human aging. The new subsidiary will reportedly focus resources on the continued clinical development of its two lead programs — OpRegen®, a pluripotent cell-derived cell therapy that is in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial for the dry form of age related macular degeneration (dry-AMD), and Renevia®, a proprietary cell delivery matrix designed to facilitate the stable engraftment of transplanted cells that is currently in a pivotal clinical trial.
- Aura Biosciences announced it has enrolled and dosed the first patient in its Phase 1b clinical trial of light-activated AU-011 — an investigational, first-in-class targeted therapy in development for the treatment of ocular melanoma. Aura additionally announced the U.S. FDA has granted AU-011 fast track designation for the treatment of primary ocular melanoma, also known as uveal or choroidal melanoma.
- Imprimis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has entered into a licensing agreement for the exclusive worldwide rights to Klarity — a patented ophthalmic topical solution and gel technology for patients with dry eye disease (DED). Klarity is reportedly designed to protect and rehabilitate the ocular surface following ophthalmic surgery, contact lens wear, or in patients with moderate to severe DED.
- Lµbris BioPharma announced Novartis has exercised an option to in-license ECF843, Lµbris' proprietary recombinant human lubricin for ophthalmic indications worldwide (outside Europe) including the treatment of dry eye.
- Regenerative medicine company CollPlant offered an update on the development of its collagen-based biological ink, bioInk, for use in 3D printing of organs and tissues. Specifically, the company is reportedly developing rhCollagen-based bioInk formulations for indications including ophthalmology.
- Clearside Biomedical Inc. has entered into a strategic collaboration with EyeKor Inc. to support Clearside’s ophthalmic clinical trial activities. As part of the collaboration, Clearside will use Excelsior™, EyeKor’s 510(k)-cleared, cloud-based software platform, for both clinical and preclinical applications.
- RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation was granted a patent from the Japan Patent Office (JPO) for the composition of matter of sd-rxRNAs targeting connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) for the treatment or prevention of fibrotic disorders, including but not limited to proliferative retinopathy and skin fibrosis. This patent includes the Company's lead clinical candidate RXI-109 — an sd-rxRNA therapeutic compound, which is currently being evaluated in Phase 2 clinical trials.
- Global genomic profiling and bioinformatics company Strand Life Sciences announced the release of version 3.0 of its flagship, next-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis and visualization platform, Strand NGS. The key highlight of this Strand NGS v3.0 release is a DNA-Seq workflow that is 1.5 to two times faster than the BWA-GATK best practices workflow.
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