HONG KONG – Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised ₩41.5 billion (US$37.90 million) to support the company’s U.S. expansion and advance its pipeline globally.
Visible Genomics has launched a set of noninvasive genetic tests aimed at assessing the overall risk of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or progressing with the disease. AMD is a common condition that affects the part of the eye called the macula. It typically blurs the central vision used in tasks like reading and driving and develops around age 50.
Shares of Unity Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ:UBX) fell 66.6% to $4.15 on Aug. 17 after UBX-0101, its one-time lead candidate, failed to best a placebo on an established measure of osteoarthritis pain in a phase II study.
Earlier this month, an update on phase I/IIa data rolled out from Rockville, Md.-based Regenxbio Inc. with RGX-314 for age-related wet macular degeneration (AMD). The company has a pivotal program in subretinal delivery of the compound set to start by the end of this year, and questions about routes of administration – always an issue in AMD – continue to simmer.
Farmington, Conn.-based biotech startup Lambdavision Inc. is preparing to test the benefits of microgravity in producing its protein-based artificial retina, thanks to a $5 million, three-year award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first-of-a-kind treatment aims to restore vision to people who have lost all or much of their sight due to advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
DUBLIN – Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd. raised £50.4 million (US$60.5 million) to further development of GT-005, its clinical-stage gene therapy for treating dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and to advance a second-generation of the subretinal delivery system it gained through its recent merger with Orbit Biomedical Ltd.
