Patient-reported outcomes and visual acuity after 12 months of anti-VEGF-treatment for sight-threatening diabetic macular edema in a real world setting

ByConnor Hodde

This study was an evaluation, at 12 months follow-up, of anti VEGF treatment for diabetic macular edema conducted in a real world setting.  To examine objective visual acuity measured with ETDRS, retinal thickness (OCT), patient reported outcome and describe levels of glycated hemoglobin and its association with the effects on visual acuity in patients treated…

Surgeons perform world’s first operation inside the eye using a robot

ByConnor Hodde

Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology. assisted by Dr Thomas Edwards, Nuffield Medical Fellow, used the remotely controlled robot to lift a membrane 100th of a millimetre thick from the retina at the back of the right eye of the Revd Dr William Beaver, 70, an Associate Priest at St Mary the Virgin, Iffley, Oxford. He…

Allergan Makes an Eye-Opening Acquisition

ByConnor Hodde

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…

Curing blindness by repairing corneas with invisible films

ByConnor Hodde

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…

Interim results from clinical trial demonstrate safety of cell-based therapy for retinitis pigmentosa

ByConnor Hodde

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…

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

ByConnor Hodde

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…

Gene-based agents for the treatment of congenital eye diseases

ByConnor Hodde

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,…

Roche CEO ‘sleeps better’ as risk to drugmaker’s growth recedes

ByConnor Hodde

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…

Activation of the molecular chaperone, sigma 1 receptor, preserves cone function in a murine model of inherited retinal degeneration.

ByConnor Hodde

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…

Prismatic eyewear for patients with tunnel vision to launch

ByConnor Hodde

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…