Visus Unveils Additional Ophthalmic Drug Candidates for Corneal Wound Healing, Glaucoma and AMD
During its inaugural Capital Markets Day in New York City, Visus Therapeutics unveiled additional ophthalmic drug candidates with applications in development for corneal wound healing, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Additionally, the company introduced a novel drug delivery platform licensed from DelSiTech that has the potential to help optimize the clinical benefit of ophthalmic therapies.
Visus's preclinical candidate, VT-201, belongs to a class of salivary and lacrimal peptides called histatins and has potential applications for corneal wound healing, including post-surgical care and treatment for ocular surface disease.
Eric D. Donnenfeld, MD, Founding Partner, Ophthalmic Consultants of New York and Ophthalmic Consultants of Connecticut, and Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, New York University Medical Center, discussed the clinical utility of histatins, such as VT-201, as potential treatments for ophthalmic conditions. He noted that histatins’ rapid wound healing, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties may help treat ocular surface diseases.
“Histatins appear to me to be one of the most extraordinarily disruptive opportunities that I have seen in ocular surface disease in my career, and this is an exciting technology that we look forward to the development of over the next few years,” said Dr. Donnenfeld. “As a corneal specialist, I am extremely interested in the development of these medications. If this technology turns out to be as disruptive as I believe it will be, it will transform the way we practice ophthalmology and improve patient care.”
Through a worldwide exclusive licensing agreement with Cella Therapeutics, Visus Therapeutics’ drug development pipeline has expanded to include a number of investigational drug candidates (VT-301, VT-401 and VT-501) intended to treat glaucoma and AMD, two of the leading causes of blindness globally.4 Through another worldwide exclusive licensing agreement, Visus Therapeutics will utilize a biodegradable, silica-based, sustained-release technology from DelSiTech Ltd. to develop these compounds as intraocular treatments that could last six months or more and potentially overcome many limitations of currently available ophthalmic therapies.
VT-301 is a novel, injectable, sustained-release delivery system that delivers Bimatoprost Acid directly to the vitreous body to potentially help manage intraocular pressure (IOP). VT-401, which combines Bimatoprost Acid and a CNTF analog compound, has the potential to not only control IOP and prevent further vision loss, but may also help improve vision in some glaucoma patients.
Ike Ahmed, MD, of the Prism Eye Institute, GAASS Fellowship Director, Kensington Eye Institute, University of Toronto and Professor, University of Utah, discussed VT-301 and VT-401 with the DelSiTech platform: “The ability to combine the pressure lowering potential of Bimatoprost Acid with the addition of CNTF for neuroprotection in a biodegradable sustained-release formulation addresses the biggest unmet needs in glaucoma treatment today – issues around patient compliance and the control of pressure fluctuations that occurs with topical drops, and neuroprotection. Visus Therapeutics’ potential multi-modal approach can address the challenges and large unmet needs in glaucoma treatment today for patients.”
Rhett Schiffman, MD, MS, MHSA, co-founder, chief medical officer and head of research and development at Visus Therapeutics, explained the biological processes that lead to geographic atrophy, a leading cause of irreversible blindness affecting 2.6 million people in the U.S., Europe and Japan.5 Geographic atrophy develops when programmed cell death pathways are activated in retinal cells. This loss of cells eventually creates a hole in the retina, forming a blind spot in the center of a person’s vision. “One of the main complaints from patients who have this is that they can't see the faces of their loved ones, their kids or grandkids, so this is really, really devastating for them,” noted Dr. Schiffman.
The company’s new investigational candidate, VT-501, combines cell death signaling inhibitors with neurotrophic factors that promote cell survival to reduce retinal cell loss, and potentially enhance function in patients with AMD. Dr. Schiffman added, “VT-501 injected intravitreally using the DelSiTech platform may overcome the extreme biological redundancy that promotes unrelenting cell death in the eye.”
Dr. Schiffman underscored how Visus Therapeutics’ expanding drug development and delivery program will drive the company’s efforts to develop best-in-class therapies to improve vision for people around the world, stating: “The synergistic nature of Cella Therapeutics’ novel, investigational candidates for glaucoma and AMD in combination with DelSiTech’s innovative drug delivery technology has the potential to yield profound advancements in the treatment of these very serious eye diseases. The addition of these assets to the Visus Therapeutics portfolio enables our seasoned team of scientists to harness their collective expertise in pursuit of improving patient outcomes.”