According to the company, the trial of the drug in wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the first ever phase II efficacy trial for a small interfering RNA therapy – an innovative approach that works by selectively silencing genes.
The company has also begun dosing patients in a pilot phase II trial of Cand5 in its second indication of diabetic macular edema (DME).
“Investigator recognition of the therapeutic potential of Acuity’s novel gene silencing drug facilitated achievement of our enrollment targets for this pioneering phase II study in wet AMD,” said Dr Lawrence Singerman of Retina Associates of Cleveland, and an investigator in the studies.