VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QLT Inc. (Nasdaq:QLTI) (TSX-V:QLT) (“QLT” or the “Company”) announced today positive preliminary results from its Phase 1b proof-of-concept clinical trial of QLT091001 for the treatment of Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a rare and disabling childhood blindness. Analysis of data from 12 subjects with LCA who were treated with QLT091001 for seven days has been conducted to determine improvements in two distinct measures of visual function: visual acuity and visual fields. The study demonstrated that treatment with QLT091001 resulted in clinically meaningful improvement in either or both visual acuity and visual fields in 8 of the 12 subjects. Statistically significant and clinically meaningful changes in visual fields from baseline values were also noted in a conservative analysis subset of 7 subjects across this heterogeneous low vision population. The results will be presented today at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2011 Annual Meeting in Fort Lauderdale, FL by Dr. Robert Koenekoop, M.D., Ph.D., the principal investigator in the trial.
