San Juan Capistrano-based Allegro Ophthalmics LLC is a privately held company looking to be the next big thing in the treatment of eye disease, with several drugs in clinical trial phases.
Allegro’s most recent feedback was positive topline results of its U.S. Phase 2 study for the treatment of intermediate age-related macular degeneration, also known in the industry as dry AMD. The clinical trial met its primary endpoint, the company said.
“Allegro’s anti-integrin portfolio continues to show great progress,” Allegro Chief Executive Vicken Karageozian, said in a statement.
“It is very encouraging to see such robust visual acuity gains in patients with dry AMD, a sight-threatening disease for which there is currently no available treatment,” he said.
Allegro’s team has long roots in OC’s ophthalmic industry. Board director William Link is managing director of Versant Ventures, a global healthcare investment company that’s among Orange County’s top venture capital firms.
Allegro co-founder and Executive Chairman Hampar Karageozian spent 23 years at Allergan, including as head of research and development. Another co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer John Park, spent 16 years at Allergan as the principal research scientist.
Allegro’s top three managers also worked together in companies they co-founded such as ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Vitreoretinal Technologies.
Trial Results
In the recent trial, Allegro has taken a novel approach, utilizing a treatment typically used for inflammatory bowel disease that they found showed encouraging results when a drug in the same classification was used on eyes.
“This Phase 2 data is very promising and suggests what we have always hoped to see: a potential therapy for intermediate dry, nonexudative AMD,” said Peter K. Kaiser, M.D., professor of ophthalmology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and staff surgeon in the vitreoretinal department at Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute.
“I am hopeful for the future of this drug candidate based on the consistency of the data that I have seen across different endpoints,” he added.
The full results of the Phase 2 clinical trial will be available on July 27 when they are presented at the American Society of Retina Specialists Annual Meeting in Chicago.
In May, the company disclosed positive feedback regarding the proof-of-concept clinical trial for its dry eye disease, or DED, treatment involving its investigational ALG-1007 topical drop drug that “is effective in improving the signs and symptoms of DED with improvement as early as two weeks,” the company said in a press release.
The DED “proof-of-concept clinical trial enrolled 40 eyes of 21 patients diagnosed with DED for at least six months,” according to the company’s website.
Eric D. Donnenfeld, M.D., was scheduled last week to present this data at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and American Society of Ophthalmic Administrators Annual Meeting, which was held in San Diego.
