Gemini Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharma company dedicated to developing treatments for genetically defined age-related macular degeneration (AMD), announced a series of corporate updates. Among these is a corporate restructuring that will see 80 percent of the company’s workforce laid off.
Gemini Therapeutics announced Oct. 5 that the company is reducing employee headcount by 20 percent and ceasing some research and non-clinical programs as part of a corporate restructuring effort to focus on a clinical trial for geographic atrophy.
Retinal tissue was regrown in three patients with age-related macular degeneration with geographic atrophy or dry (atrophic) AMD in a Phase I/IIa study conducted by Lineage Cell Therapeutics.
Novartis cut three Phase III trials of the eye therapy Beovu (brolucizumab) after the studies showed higher rates of intraocular inflammation with frequent dosing intervals of the therapy.
Gyroscope Therapeutics – with headquarters in Stevenage, UK – is merging with Ambler, Pennsylvania-based Orbit Biomedical. The companies will operate under the Gyroscope name and focus on gene therapies for diseases of the eye.
IFM Therapeutics launched a second subsidiary in less than a year. The Boston-based company launched IFM Due, a subsidiary company developing a suite of cGAS inhibitors and STING antagonists that can target diseases such as NASH, lupus and Parkinson’s.
Pixium Vision announced that the bioelectronics company’s subretinal PRIMA system met the endpoints of the feasibility study, at interim 6 months follow-up after implantation and rehabilitation for patients with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Ionis Pharmaceuticals inked a deal worth more than $700 million with pharma giant Roche to develop an antisense drug for the treatment of complement-mediated diseases.
First reported by FierceBiotech, Roche’s financial reports indicated the company was cutting a total of four drugs: One late-stage product and three drugs in Phase I development.
Bayer is weighing legal action and Novartis has expressed concern at plans by doctors in the north of England to defy official guidance by using a cancer medicine as a cheap eye drug.