Eye disease

Brepocitinib is on a roll. After winning approval for an autoimmune skin disease, Roivant Sciences subsidiary Priovant’s drug hit all primary and secondary endpoints in a pair of Phase 3 non-infectious uveitis trials, leading analysts to say the candidate “looked superior to Humira.”

Kodiak Sciences will head to regulators with one of the candidates, an anti-VEGF antibody called zenkuda, after the late-stage results.

Analysts were keen to see a new modality compete with Roche’s approved drug Lucentis in the late-stage trial but new safety issues could complicate the future for Merck’s candidate.

In this episode of Denatured, you’ll hear Philip Jacob Rosenfeld, professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Miami Health System and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and Wesley Jackson, chief science officer at Valitor. We talk about the eye condition call wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the limits of anti‑VEGF therapy and the push for true durability to change a patient’s life.