Adverum Advances Wet AMD Gene Therapy After Cutting Jobs

Redwood City, California-based Adverum Biotechnologies announced new data from the OPTIC study treating wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and is now preparing for its ADVM-022 Phase 2 LUNA study.

ADVM-022 or ixoberogene soroparvovec (lxo-vec) is Adverum’s shot at establishing its gene therapy as a standard of care for ocular diseases, starting with wet AMD. After laying off some employees in June, the biotech now has the cash required to further its trials until 2025.

AMD is the most common cause of vision loss in older adults (50-60), the disease blurs the central vision, making it harder to see faces, drive, or do close-up work. Wet AMD is called advanced neovascular AMD, it is a type of AMD that causes fast vision loss and occurs when blood vessels grow abnormally in the back of the eye and damage the macula.

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One-Time Injection for Reduced Patient Burden

Wet AMD is treated with anti-VEGF injections to the eye every 1, 2, or 3 months for as long as needed, but the company’s gene therapy only requires one administration and is designed to deliver long-term efficacy. “ADVM-022 utilizes a proprietary vector capsid, AAV.7m8, carrying an aflibercept coding sequence under the control of a proprietary expression cassette,” says Adverum, the drug inhibits new abnormal vascular growth in the eye, hereby improving vision outcomes for patients with wet AMD.

The OPTIC trial established an 81% to 98% reduction in annualized anti-VEGF injections and demonstrated continuous aflibercept expression levels after three years following a single, intravitreal injection of ADVM-022. The biotech said its Phase 2 LUNA study will start dosing patients in Q3 2022, with up to 72 patients.

In 2021, Adverum paused its trial after 5 out of 12 trial participants developed loss of vision after receiving a higher dose of the drug, however, news of the Phase 2 advancement will no doubt win back investors and onlookers alike.

Author

Fujie Tham