NEI grant for UC Davis Health.
The National Eye Institute (NEI) has bestowed a five-year $3.6 million grant to the UC Davis Department of Ophthalmology, to help fund the department’s gene therapy research. In response to the grant, Glenn Yiu, the lead investigator for the grant and a retinal specialist at the UC Davis Eye Center, said, “We’re excited to explore this new way of delivering gene therapy to the eye. If we can make gene delivery safer and more effective, it could open the door to treating many more patients with blinding eye diseases.” This research could pave the way for developing safer, non-invasive gene therapy treatments for diseases such as inherited blindness and macular degeneration. Link
Anti-VEGF biosimilar acquisition.
North American eye care pharmaceutical company, Harrow, have announced a definitive agreement with Samsung Bioepis, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing biosimilar medicines. The agreement sees Harrow securing exclusive US commercial rights to Samsung Bioepis’ ophthalmology biosimilar portfolio, a portfolio which comprises OPUVIZ (aflibercept-yszy), an FDA-approved biosimilar referencing EYLEA2 (aflibercept), and BYOOVIZ (ranibizumab-nuna), an FDA-approved biosimilar referencing LUCENTIS1 (ranibizumab). These biosimilars reference two of the most commonly used anti-VEGF therapies for retinal disease in the US, and the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Link
Undetected eye disease in African Americans.
A population-based, cross-sectional American Journal of Ophthalmology study has suggested that almost one in five African American adults are living with an “Undetected Eye Disease” (UED). The African American Eye Disease Study looked at self-identified African American participants aged 40 and above in Inglewood, California. With a total of 6347 participants included in the study, it was revealed that 54% (3434) of the participants had an eye disease of some sort, with 22% of these participants (766) not being diagnosed with an eye disease. The study saw particularly high rates of undetected age-related macular degeneration (AMD) (72%) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) (82%) in this cohort, and found that those participants who had never received an eye exam or who had a prior history of diabetes were most at risk. Given that 61% of the visually impaired (VI) cases were viewed as correctable by the researchers, they suggest that increasing access to eye care in this population could significantly reduce the “burden of VI in this high-risk minority population.” Link
Glaucoma and depression links.
A large-scale UK Biobank cohort study, conducted by researchers based at Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China, has found a significant bidirectional association between depression and glaucoma, with each condition increasing the risk of the other by approximately 60%. Looking at data gathered from 348,537 Caucasian patients (including 22,153 with depression and 7,544 with glaucoma), the study indicated that having glaucoma increased the odds of depression by 1.61 times, whereas having depression increased the odds of glaucoma by 1.63 times. Observing these significant associations between mental health and glaucoma, the researchers note that lipid metabolism could play a vital role in glaucoma diagnosis and treatment, and suggest that future drug treatments should focus on targeting lipid pathways as a potential therapeutic intervention for glaucoma patients with comorbid depression. Link
