PulseSight Therapeutics launches with focus on non-viral gene therapies
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Key takeaways:
- PulseSight plans to advance therapies for wet and dry age-related macular degeneration.
- Pureos Bioventures and ND Capital have provided seed financing.
PulseSight Therapeutics, which is developing non-viral gene therapies for retinal diseases, has launched with seed financing from Pureos Bioventures and ND Capital, according to a press release.
“PulseSight is developing highly promising compounds that have the potential to overcome the limitations of current treatments for wet [age-related macular degeneration] and viral gene therapies under development, with strong efficacy while reducing the burden of administration,” Judith Greciet, CEO of PulseSight, told Healio. “PulseSight is heading to the clinical stage with its two programs, which could drastically improve the way that ophthalmologists treat their AMD patients in the future.”
PST-809, a potential first-in-class therapy for wet AMD and PulseSight’s lead candidate, has shown “superior” efficacy to intravitreal aflibercept in reducing vascular leakage and promoting retinal pigment epithelium wound healing in preclinical studies. A second program involves PST-611 for geographic atrophy in late-stage dry AMD, with beneficial effects seen in preclinical experiments in various disease models.
“PulseSight’s innovative platform is a non-viral gene therapy platform, delivering plasmid DNA via a minimally invasive technology and allowing long-lasting expression of the therapeutic proteins. Our data demonstrate a sustained effect for at least 6 months; however, it is reversible and allows a switch-off strategy, which is key for AMD patients to best adjust the treatment to their needs,” Greciet said. “In addition, the chosen therapeutic proteins encoded in each plasmid acts on multiple pathological pathways, leading to strong efficacy in these two forms of AMD. Therefore, we believe that PulseSight’s programs have the potential to become real game changers in this field.”
Dominik Escher, PhD, founding partner of Pureos Bioventures, and Kostas Kaloulis, PhD, venture partner at ND Capital, have joined PulseSight’s board alongside Dirk Sauer, previously head of ophthalmology at Novartis, who will serve as independent chair.
“We have the commitment of our seed investors to invest in the Series A and are actively fundraising to enable us to move as quickly as possible into clinical trials,” Greciet said.
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