Allegro Ophthalmics Provides Updates on Dry AMD Pipeline Candidates

Allegro Ophthalmics announced the presentation of data supporting dry AMD pipeline candidates, including risuteganib (Luminate), at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's 20th annual Angiogenesis, Exudation and Degeneration meeting, being held virtually February 10-11, 2023.

Baruch Kuppermann, MD, Roger F. Steinert professor, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine, shared clinical evidence as well as considerations for matching mechanism of action (MOA) with the right patient population and stage of disease to reverse vision loss in dry AMD.

Dr. Kuppermann highlighted that most dry AMD pipeline candidates currently focus on treating geographic atrophy (GA), which accounts for only 10% of dry AMD patients, as opposed to those with early and intermediate disease, who make up 40% of the total dry AMD patient population. The only two pipeline candidates that have shown best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) gains in intermediate dry AMD are mitochondrial stabilizing drugs, including risuteganib, Dr. Kuppermann said. He also discussed how these candidates have shown threshold OCT characteristics, such as minimum ellipsoid zone and photoreceptor layer thickness, that predicts BCVA response to treatment, thus helping clinicians predict outcomes and select the patients most likely to benefit from treatment.

"Existing data suggest that restoration of functional vision is achievable in dry AMD patients with more anatomical integrity, or less disease progression, using these mitochondrial stabilizing drug candidates," Dr. Kuppermann said in a company news release. "This underscores the potential for early treatment of dry AMD, with the right therapeutic agent, to reverse vision loss."