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Speaker: Venture capital drives innovation in medical retina research
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MIAMI — Robust investment by venture capitalists is making up for stagnant government funding for medical research, particularly in the ophthalmic and biotechnology sectors, a speaker told colleagues here.
“Necessity is the mother of invention. I like to say that prosperity is the father of innovation. We can’t have innovation unless we have a robust economy because we need that money to drive the innovation,” Emmett T. Cunningham Jr., MD, PhD, MPH, said at Angiogenesis, Exudation, and Degeneration 2016.
Emmett T. Cunningham
“It’s a very active landscape, as you know,” Cunningham said. “The device sector has been under a lot of pressure recently, so there’s relatively fewer device investments. Retina has been among the most active, I think the most active if you look at [dollars and numbers of deals].”
Venture capital investment in life science increased 30% between 2005 and 2014, Cunningham said. He outlined several ongoing and emerging developments in retina research.
Last year, the FDA approved de novo classification for the BrainPort V100 (Wicab Inc.), a device that provides electrotactile stimulation to help blind patients with orientation, mobility and object recognition.
Research and development are active in gene therapy. For example, Spark is submitting positive phase 3 trial results for SPK-RPE65 in the treatment of RPE65-mediated inherited retinal dystrophies.
“That bodes well, I think, both for gene therapy and for ophthalmology,” Cunningham said.
Data from AGTC and Biogen’s phase 2 trial on X-linked retinoschisis are expected to be released this year, Cunningham said.
“I think this will be important because it will speak to how translatable or extendable these gene therapy results are to other indications,” he said.
Two phase 3 trials for Humira (adalimumab, AbbVie) in the treatment of noninfectious uveitis showed positive results, Cunningham said.
Santen has positive results from the SAKURA study on intravitreal sirolimus for macular edema and intermediate uveitis.
Later this year, Ophthotech plans to release phase 3 data on Fovista, an anti-VEGF combined with an anti-PDGF. “I think that will be a bellwether for our space,” Cunningham said.
Other innovations include sustained-release Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech) and topical approaches such as Ohr Pharmaceutical’s OHR-102 (squalamine lactate ophthalmic solution 0.2%.) – by Matt Hasson and Kristie L. Kahl
Disclosure: Cunningham reports he is a consultant for Ophthotech.