Acuity Pharmaceuticals has recently reported the positive results of its Phase II C.A.R.E™ trial for bevasiranib sodium (formerly Cand5), Acuity's lead compound for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), the major cause of blindness.
Bevasiranib is a first-in-class small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutic designed to silence the genes that produce vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the cause of AMD.
Acuity’s C.A.R.E.™ (Cand5 Anti-VEGF RNAi Evaluation) study was a randomized, double-masked trial that included three dose levels of bevasiranib tested in 129 patients with wet AMD at 28 sites in the United States, focused on patients with serious disease, classic or active minimally classic AMD, including patients who had failed previous treatments.
Bevasiranib was shown to be very safe in the study: all doses well tolerated and most adverse events mild.
According to Lawrence Singerman M.D., founder and executive secretary of the Macula Society, clinical professor of ophthalmology at Case University and a principle investigator for the study at its Cleveland site:
"Bevasiranib is a promising new agent that has now demonstrated encouraging potential in this first large-scale study in wet AMD patients with aggressive disease.
Bevasiranib's excellent safety profile, its demonstrated ability to inhibit the growth of choroidal neovascular lesions and its potential for prolonged duration of effect warrant proceeding to Phase III trials.
Bevasiranib's potential to complement VEGF antagonist drugs in combination or as a maintenance therapy could provide an important benefit to patients, and I look forward to helping to assess its utility in future trials."
VEGF antagonists neutralize the VEGF already produced in the eye. On the other hand, bevasiranib works by shutting down the genes that produce future VEGF.
The findings in the said trial were presented September 10 at the 24th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists in Cannes, France.
Read more at Acuity Pharmaceuticals (a pdf file).
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