Global pharmaceutical company Allergan (NYSE:AGN) may have just revealed its plans for the future. On Aug. 11, the company announced its plan to acquire ForSight Vision5, a privately held biotech. Allergan will pay $95 million up front and will also pay a milestone payment next year if ForSight's innovative glaucoma treatment device makes it through the FDA gauntlet and is successfully launched. …
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Curing blindness by repairing corneas with invisible films
The University of Melbourne–lead team of researchers have grown corneal cells on a layer of film that can be implanted in the eye to help the cornea heal itself. They have successfully restored vision in animal trials and are aiming to move to human trials next year. "The hydrogel film we have developed allows us to grow a layer of corneal cells in the laboratory," says Berkay. "Then, we can …
Interim results from clinical trial demonstrate safety of cell-based therapy for retinitis pigmentosa
Regenerative medicine company jCyte and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine report that their investigational therapy for retinitis pigmentosa (RP) has demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile in an ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial. The cell-based approach taken is intended to rescue sick and dying retinal photoreceptor cells …
Investigator-Sponsored Phase 2 Study Results Show pSivida’s Medidur® Fully Controlled Uveitis for Two Years with No Recurrence of Disease While Visual Acuity Continued to Improve
WATERTOWN, Mass., July 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ:PSDV) (ASX:PVA), a leader in the development of sustained release drug delivery products primarily for eye diseases, announced that the results from an investigator-sponsored Phase 2 study of pSivida’s Medidur showed no recurrence of uveitis in 11 eyes treated with Medidur during the two years following implantation, while …
Gene-based agents for the treatment of congenital eye diseases
Pharmacologists at LMU have developed gene-based agents for the treatment of congenital eye diseases. The first of these is now undergoing a phase-I clinical trial in color-blind patients at the University Medical Center in Tübingen. Is this approach translatable in principle to other visual disorders? Michalakis: About 200 genes have been identified which, when mutated, lead to monogenetic …
Roche CEO ‘sleeps better’ as risk to drugmaker’s growth recedes
LONDON (Reuters) - Roche (ROG.S) is increasingly confident it will continue to lift sales and profit even as cut-rate copies of the Swiss drugmaker's older cancer medicines start to grab business next year, its chief executive said on Wednesday. In February the company won U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) breakthrough status for new multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus. That was followed in …
Activation of the molecular chaperone, sigma 1 receptor, preserves cone function in a murine model of inherited retinal degeneration.
Retinal degenerative diseases are major causes of untreatable blindness, and novel approaches to treatment are being sought actively. Here we explored the activation of a unique protein, sigma 1 receptor (Sig1R), in the treatment of PRC loss because of its multifaceted role in cellular survival. We used Pde6βrd10 (rd10) mice, which harbor a mutation in the rod-specific phosphodiesterase gene …
Prismatic eyewear for patients with tunnel vision to launch
A trio of eyeglasses using revolutionary prism techniques could open up a whole new field of view for patients with hemianopia. The three designs – yoked prisms in a carrier lens, a bi-part double Fresnel prism, and the mirror-based periscopic prisms – were showcased in the journal Optometry and Vision Science. Lead researcher and Harvard Medical School ophthalmology professor, Dr Eli Peli, told …
Intraocular therapy prevents or reverses diabetic retinopathy in mice
Pathologic changes of the retina caused by diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in working adults. Diabetic retinopathy has no known cure, treatment options are inadequate, and prevention strategies offer limited protection. In the first of its kind, a report in The American Journal of Pathology describes a potential new intraocular treatment based on manipulating the renin angiotensin …
Retinal Remodeling And Metabolic Alterations in Human AMD
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive retinal degeneration resulting in central visual field loss, ultimately causing debilitating blindness. While many genetic and environmental risk factors are known for AMD, we currently know less about the mechanisms mediating disease progression. The goal of this article is to illustrate cell types impacted in AMD and demonstrate the …