An 88-year-old man at The Methodist Hospital in Houston is one of two patients in the world today to receive an investigational eye drop that may restore sight for those suffering from neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, a major cause of central visual loss and one of the leading causes of blindness in people over 60 in the United States.
Currently, the standard treatment requires multiple injections into the diseased eye.
Today, the patient received the topical administration of the drug called TG100801 in a Phase IIa, multi-center trial sponsored by TargeGen, Inc. This represents the first wet AMD patient in Texas and one of the first worldwide to be treated with eye drops alone for the management of the disease. In pre-clinical models, the investigational drug blocked new blood vessel growth and leakiness, which lead to AMD, by inhibiting VEGF and other related proteins that are believed to play a critical role in the formation of new blood vessels. TG100801 is also designed to reduce inflammation (including edema), a common symptom of AMD, and other back of the eye diseases, including diabetic macular edema and diabetic retinopathy. In as little as a month, investigators may learn if the eye drops were effective.
“If the eye drops work, it will be much better for the patient,” said Dr. David Brown, a retinal surgeon at Methodist and primary investigator at Vitreoretinal Consultants. “We're continually looking for more effective treatments for our many AMD patients. If we can get this effect without injections, that would be a major breakthrough.”