LINCOLN – Neurotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to move into the final stage of development on its top product candidate, NT-501, after a second round of clinical trials ended with positive results.
If the final stage of testing goes well, the biopharmaceutical company, which focuses on the development of treatments for chronic eye diseases, can seek approval for the technology from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Neurotech has been presenting its findings at conferences this spring.
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NT-501 was developed for the treatment of “dry,” or atrophic, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that can leave its victims with only their peripheral vision, rendering the center of their sight line a black hole, according to the Macular Degeneration Partnership, an advocacy group.
The partnership estimates that up to 15 million Americans suffer from AMD, which it says is the No. 1 cause of severe vision loss and legal blindness in adults over the age of 60 in the U.S. There currently is no treatment for the dry version of the disease.
NT-501 is an eye implant that consists of genetically-modified cells which can fight off AMD. Neurotech said the second round of trials found that NT-501 stabilized or slowed the loss of vision, with 96.3 percent of treated patients losing fewer than three lines of vision compared with 75 percent in the untreated group.
One of the study’s investigators, Dr. George A. Williams of Michigan’s Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, said: “The favorable functional visual acuity results for patients at this advanced stage of dry AMD are particularly promising due to the significant prevalence of the condition, its serious impact on quality of life and the current unmet medical need for effective therapy.”
Neurotech – which grew out of the former CytoTherapeutics Inc., a Providence-based pharmaceutical startup – decided to expand its Rhode Island operations last year after the R.I. Economic Development Corporation approved a $4 million financing deal for the company.
