A Recap of Gene Therapy Programs in Retina with Charles Wykoff, MD, PhD

Gene therapy for retinal diseases was a hot topic at the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) 42nd Annual Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, with updates on several developments across the pipeline. In an interview with HCPLive, Charles C. Wykoff, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at Retina Consultants of Texas, broke down the goal of creating an “intraocular bio factory” for a one-and-done treatment to meaningfully change that patient's disease course moving forward. “The topic of gene therapy has been discussed for generations at this point, and it’s really coming to a head, if you will, in retina,” Wykoff told HCPLive. “There’s a tremendous number of gene therapy programs and that’s such a broad term too.” He then touched on the multitude of programs evaluating gene therapies across the retina field, narrowing in on the three major gene therapy programs for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), including RGX-314, 4D-150, and ixoberogene soroparvovec (Ixo-vec) gene therapies. At the meeting, Wykoff presented interim data from the Phase 2 LUNA study, showing a single Ixo-vec injection led to a 90–95% reduction in annualized anti-VEGF injections and maintenance of visual and anatomic outcomes in treatment-experienced patients with nAMD. Visit HCPLive for more from the Wykoff interview: https://www.hcplive.com/view/charles-... For more ASRS coverage, visit https://www.hcplive.com/conference/asrs #retina #conference #genetherapy