From myopia management expansions to shining a light on the discrimination faced by the visually impaired, these are the news stories and studies that caught our attention this week…
Promising new NPDR treatment. Breye Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on vascular eye diseases, has announced successful completion of a Phase 1b clinical trial evaluating its lead oral first-in-class small molecule candidate, danegaptide, for patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and associated macular edema. In a multicenter, dose-escalation study, danegaptide was found to be well tolerated at all dose levels, with no dose-limiting toxicities reported. Encouragingly, early signs of clinical activity were observed through retinal imaging, showing reductions in vascular leakage and improvements in retinal anatomy – hallmarks of disease stabilization. “These results continue to support danegaptide’s potential as an oral, non-invasive therapeutic solution for patients in the earlier stages of diabetic retinopathy,” said CEO of Breye Therapeutics, Ulrik Mouritzen. “As we now prepare to advance into Phase 2 clinical evaluation, our focus is on validating these findings using regulatory-accepted clinical outcomes to progress our mission of developing safe and effective treatment options for these patients to preserve their vision before the onset of irreversible damage.” Link
Generation Sight expansion. CooperVision has announced the expansion of its Generation Sight initiative, a program aimed at improving access to myopia management for under-resourced children in the United States. Following a successful first year serving children in Boston and Chicago, the initiative has now extended into additional community health centers across Greater Boston and Rhode Island. Launched in collaboration with the Illinois College of Optometry and the New England College of Optometry, the program integrates academic institutions with community health efforts to create a sustainable model for pediatric eye care access. “Programs like Generation Sight are vital in addressing this growing public health concern, particularly in communities where access to eye care is limited,” observed Michele Andrews, Vice President of Marketing and Professional Affairs, Americas, at CooperVision. “By combining clinical innovation, academic partnerships, and community outreach, CooperVision is creating a scalable model for improving children’s eye health nationwide.” Link
DED relief app. The head of Aston University School of Optometry, Birmingham, UK, James Wolffsohn, and his team have developed a novel app – MyDryEye – to better help dry eye disease (DED) patients relieve their symptoms. Based on a study Wolffsohn conducted with his team investigating the effectiveness of different blinking exercise routines for individuals with DED, the app can be used to help sufferers complete an optimized blinking exercise routine devised by the researchers. The technique involves repeating a close-squeeze-blink cycle fifteen times, three times daily, and was shown by the study to relieve both DED symptom severity and frequency in participants, as well as conjunctival staining and the number of incomplete blinks they would ordinarily perform. The MyDryEye app, the study authors say, “allows blinking exercise reminders to be sent and compliance to be monitored” for these patients. Link
Prejudice against the visually impaired. Taking data from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey, a team of researchers based at the Scheie Eye Institute, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, have investigated prejudice and mistreatment of the visually disabled in the US. Publishing their findings in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, the team used the Heightened Vigilance Scale and Everyday Discrimination Scale to assess the visually disabled participant’s everyday experiences of prejudice. 28,615 adult participants were looked at in the study, with the report suggesting that those individuals with visual disabilities were more likely to experience discrimination – as well as a state of heightened vigilance (at expecting to be discriminated against) – compared to those who had no visual disability. As such, the authors recommend that targeted social interventions are made for these individuals – whether that be in healthcare, employment, transportation, or education settings – to address the widespread issue. Link
