BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Start-up Ophthaltec Ltd. sealed its first contracts to provide specialist development services to GlaxoSmithKline plc in ophthalmology and progressed its lead product, a diagnostic for the eye disease glaucoma, toward a first clinical trial. On the back of that progress, the London-based company is raising its first round of venture capital.

CEO Peter Adamson told BioWorld International he hopes to close the round within the next eight weeks. That will enable the company to go ahead with the in-licensing of I-cyte, a cell therapy for treating both the wet and dry forms of age-related macular degeneration, and to press ahead with plans to license compounds from GSK to reprofile for treating eye diseases.

Ophthaltec was formed by the technology commercialization specialist Inflect Technologies, of New York, to meet the growing need in ophthalmics generated by the aging population. After identifying the gap in the market, in January 2007, Inflect recruited Adamson, who has worked for GSK and at the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London, to run the company.

Adamson has since in-licensed the glaucoma diagnostic and developed the fee-for-service business. "Contract services are not value-making, but they generate early revenues and help us to build strategic relationships," he said. The research will be carried out by Ophthaltec's academic partners at the Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.

Adamson was not able to disclose what the GSK projects are, other than to say they are ophthalmic in nature.

"Ophthalmics is a very specialized area in terms of administration [of drugs] and how you assess the data. With the eye you can look inside using noninvasive imaging technologies, and in animal studies, there are behavioural techniques to assess efficacy because the way an animal behaves is influenced by what it can see."

To date, the ophthalmic market has not been attractive to large pharmaceutical companies, but the aging population means there is an increase in the incidence of degenerative eye diseases such as glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.

Adamson believes there are significant opportunities to reprofile existing compounds for ophthalmic use. "We are not a discovery company, but will take in candidates from lead chemistry onward, resulting in a very much shorter route to market."

From his time at GSK, Adamson is aware of how many terminated compounds the London-based pharmaceutical company has littering its shelves. He is negotiating for access to around 600 he thinks are of interest in ophthalmic indications.

At the same time, Ophthaltec is negotiating for rights to an encapsulated retinal epithelial cell line developed by Neurotech USA Inc., of Lincoln, R.I. Neurotech developed the encapsulated GMP-standard cells following a licensing deal with the Institute of Ophthalmology in 1998. Working with scientists from the Institute, Neurotech (then based in Paris), genetically modified the cells to secrete ciliary neurotrophic factor, and that product, NT-501, is in Phase II/III clinical trials in the treatment of the inherited degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa.

Adamson, who is one of the original inventors of the technology licensed from the Institute of Ophthalmology, said that researchers at the Institute have shown implants of the retinal cells restore vision in animal models of age-related macular degeneration, and clinicians at Moorfields Hospital have successfully treated 12 patients with the disease.

Ophthaltec's lead product is an imaging agent for diagnosing glaucoma. The eye disease currently is diagnosed by measuring intraocular pressure. But while high pressure is a risk factor, Adamson said that sufferers are likely to have had the disease for 10 years and lose 40 percent to 60 percent of their nerves by the time intraocular pressure is noted to be elevated. The Ophthaltec product binds to cells undergoing apoptosis. "Our technology shows you cells that are actively dying," Adamson said.

An injectable version is in GMP development currently and will be tested in a 12-patient trial later this year. A second-generation topical formulation is in development and Adamson said once that is available it could be used routinely in eye checkups.