There were slightly more adverse events in those patients using Avastin than Lucentis, but the study’s authors concluded that the differences were not specifically associated with the use of Avastin, but more likely due to the age of the subjects in the study – a median age of 80 years.

For more details, please see the complete writeup at the following link.

Executives anticipate that Bausch + Lomb will help ISTA strengthen its pipeline and market its products by combining ISTA’s portfolio of non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory, allergy, and glaucoma drops (such as XIBROM and Bromday) to Bausch + Lomb’s portfolio of existing Rx ophthalmology and OTC eye health products. ISTA’s pipeline includes candidates in various stages of development to treat various ocular conditions including inflammation and pain, while Bausch + Lomb’s pipeline of pharmaceutical innovations include the first of a new class of ocular anti-inflammatory agents to come along in decades, and a promising approach to reducing intra-ocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.

Click here for the full press release.

Bascom Palmer, one of the country’s premier eye institutes, joins UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute and the Wills Eye Institute as the third U.S. site participating in the company’s Phase I/II clinical trials.

The Phase I/II trial is a prospective, open-label study designed to determine the safety and tolerability of the hESC-derived RPE cells following sub-retinal transplantation into patients with dry AMD. The trial will ultimately enroll 12 patients, with cohorts of three patients each in an ascending dosage format.

Click here to learn more about patient eligibility to participate in the trials.

To read more about the trials, please follow this link.

The company then announced that it had received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase I/II clinical trial of the company’s proprietary HuCNS-SCr product candidate (purified human neural stem cells) in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of AMD.

We believe that at least one of the sites for the clinical trial will be the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health and Science University.

To read the complete story, please follow this link.

The trial is aimed at patients with Usher Syndrome Type 1B, a form or retinitis pigmentosa that leads to blindness and hearing loss.

There is currently no treatment for this disease.

Based on laboratory pre-clinical studies, the researchers believe that a single UshStat treatment may last for several years, and perhaps for a lifetime.

In addition, Oxford BioMedica issued an update on all of its ophthalmic gene therapy programs, as part of its year-end report.

To read the full article, please follow this link.

Dr. Jose L. Guell, MD, the leader of the study, further suggested that the high degree of control available with femtosecond lasers may enable physicians to improve the final lens position.

Meanwhile, late last month, OptiMedica Corp. announced the launch of its Catalys Precision Laser System in the United States, with the first patient cases performed by Drs. Mike and Paul Mann at the Mann Eye Institute in Houston. The system was cleared for market by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late December 2011.

Drs. Mann are now using Catalys to perform laser capsulotomy and lens fragmentation during cataract surgery. Findings published in the peer-reviewed publications Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery and Science Translational Medicine have demonstrated the system’s ability to deliver industry-leading improvement in precision and accuracy across these steps, with incision accuracy results measured in tens of microns. Laser lens fragmentation with Catalys has also been shown to greatly improve the ease and gentleness of lens disassembly, reducing cumulative dissipated energy (CDE) during ultrasound phacoemulsification by approximately 40 percent.

A new start-up company is looking into the possibility of certain compounds that appear to boost mitochondrial function to provide “energy” to “reduced capacity” mitochondria in retinal cells that are possibly at the root of retinal degenerations in such diseases as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.

Two scientists, Drs. Rohrer and Beeson, of the Ophthalmology department at the Medical University of South Carolina have started a new company, MitoChem Therapeutics, that has just received $2 million from the Foundation Fighting Blindness to do just that. After screening a library of 50,000 drug compounds, they have apparently identified three compounds that appear to boost mitochondrial function, and will now attempt to identify which one will work best in people as an eye drop, and move it into a clinical trial.

To read more, please follow this link.

Here is how I commented about this breakthrough in my writeup:

“If this approach is successful, it could result in a “game change” in the way wet AMD is treated. Instead of multiple injections to gain control of neovascularization, one injection at the first signs of neovascularization could stop it dead in its tracks and the effect could last, potentially, for several years.

In addition, it is conceivable that patients at risk of developing wet AMD could receive a therapeutic injection of AVA-101 to prevent the occurrence of wet AMD. This would be a definite paradigm shift in the treatment of AMD.

With the human clinical testing now underway, we should have an indication of initial results with this unique approach within about a year.

Stay tuned!”

In a nutshell, Avalanche has developed a proprietary drug delivery system, known as Ocular BioFactoryTM, that continuously secretes a therapeutic protein over an extended period following a single subretinal injection, thus avoiding the need for frequent intraocular injections of recombinant anti-VEGF protein.

To read more about this potential “game changing” breakthrough in the future treatment of wet AMD, please follow this link.

As noted by both Drs. Phil Rosenfeld and Carmen Puliafito, who have used the new software, this new diagnostic tool will play an important role in assessing and speeding the development of  new treatments for both dry and wet AMD, that are being researched and brought to the market.

To read the full story, please follow this link.

First, the company said that a peer-reviewed publication of clinical results from its first patients treated at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute had been published online by the UK’s The Lancet. The study reported on the four-month results of a safety study initiated in human patients last July. In that study, one eye of a patient with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy (SMD), and another with the dry form of AMD were given doses of human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. After four months, no safety problems had been observed and vision improvements were noted in both patients.

The second event was the announcement that the first patient had been treated with stem cells in the UK arm of the Stargardt’s study, at Moorfields Eye Hospital on January 20th.

For the whole story, please follow this link.