People living with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) may one day benefit from a new drug being trialled in Australia.
PYC Therapeutics has been given approval to start a first-of-its-kind human clinical trial using a new drug to treat RP11 – a common subtype of RP.
The Lions Eye Institute (LEI) and PYC Therapeutics have spent several years progressing a highly promising drug to treat RP11. Working in the Institute’s Ocular Tissue Engineering Lab, ophthalmologist Associate Professor Fred Chen (LEI), Professor Sue Fletcher (the Chief Scientific Officer of PYC), and her team, designed the drug to correct the deficiency responsible for RP11, in cells derived from patients with RP.
Successful cell experiments provided the best proof of principal for the drug to work in humans, paving the way for clinical trials to establish safety and optimal dose, which will begin later this year.
The non-interventional trial with assessments will measure and evaluate structural and functional visual changes, including those impacting patient quality of life associated with RP. It will also observe how these changes evolve over time.
Assoc Prof Chen treats numerous patients with retinitis pigmentosa, including families with multiple members who have developed severe retinitis pigmentosa in their early teens.
