Novel VEGFR/PDGFR inhibitor well-tolerated in treatment of wet AMD

A new treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration was well-tolerated and showed potential efficacy, according to a news release.

At the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting, Xcovery Vision released preliminary data from a phase 1/2 clinical trial of the VEGFR/PDGFR inhibitor X-82.

“The data show that 50 mg of X-82 once daily achieves exposures well above the concentration required to inhibit new blood vessel formation, which suggests that the dose should be well-tolerated and could be efficacious in treating wet AMD patients,” Chris Liang, PhD, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Xcovery Vision, said in the release.

X-82 is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor in an oral formulation that blocks pathologic blood vessel growth and targets forms of neovascularization in ophthalmic settings, such as AMD and diabetic retinopathy, the release said.

Patient enrollment in the study began at five centers around the U.S. in November 2012.

According to ClinicalTrials.gov, the trial includes patients aged 50 years or older with active choroidal neovascularization associated with AMD, subretinal hemorrhage less than 50% of total lesion size, and best corrected visual acuity of 20/40 to 20/200 or 20/320 in the study eye and equal or better BCVA in the fellow eye. Patients who received previous anti-VEGF treatment, photodynamic therapy, external beam radiation, subfoveal focal laser photocoagulation, submacular surgery or transpupillary thermotherapy in the study eye are excluded.