Surrozen Discontinues Liver Program; Shifts Focus to Ophthalmology

Surrozen announced that the company will focus its Wnt biology expertise and Wnt signal modulation antibody technologies on its ophthalmology programs, including development of new treatment options for retinopathies.

The company will use a $175-million private placement to fund multiple ophthalmology programs through initial phase 1 safety, tolerability and efficacy studies. 

Modulation of Wnt signaling has the potential to be relevant in a broad range of prevalent eye diseases, including wet and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, Fuchs’ endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), and noninfectious uveitis, as well as certain rare eye diseases like retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt’s, and Familial Exudative Vitreoretinopathy (FEVR), according to Surrozen. The two lead candidates for the treatment of retinopathies include SZN-8141 (Fzd4/VEGF) and SZN-8143 (Fzd4/VEGF/IL-6). 

Surrozen will discontinue development of SZN-043 in severe alcohol associated hepatitis. While treatment with SZN-043 was safe and well-tolerated and demonstrated positive changes in liver function assays, the company stated that there was not a sufficient early signal of clinical benefit to warrant further investment given the challenges associated with an acutely sick target population and a lengthy clinical development path.   

“Given the significant progress and potential of our ophthalmology programs, we have decided to focus on our robust ophthalmology pipeline. Importantly, our retinal ophthalmology programs represent novel combinations of clinically validated targets for treating a broad spectrum of serious eye diseases," Craig Parker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Surrozen, said in a company news release. "We look forward to advancing our proprietary ophthalmology candidates to the clinic including our collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to advance SZN-413 into development."

SZN-8141 combines Frizzled 4 (Fzd4) agonism and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) antagonism, which has the potential to provide benefits over treatment with single agents for diabetic macular edema (DME) and wet AMD. 

SZN-8143 combines Fzd4 agonism, VEGF antagonism, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) antagonism, which may have benefits over single agents for treatment of DME, wet AMD, and uveitic macular edema (UME).