8:00 am Morning Refreshments & Registration
8:55 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
9:00 am Panel Discussion: State of Play of Retinal Vascular Drug Development
Synopsis
- What are the unique challenges of developing safe and efficacious drugs for Wet AMD vs DR vs DME? How are these different from the challenges when developing therapeutics for Dry AMD and GA?
- What do the current clinical pipelines look like for Wet AMD vs DR vs DME vs RVO?
- What does the future of the retinal vascular drug development field look like?
EXPLORING NEW TREATMENT MODALITIES TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON FREQUENT ANTI-VEGF INJECTIONS & CATER FOR THE UNTREATED PATIENT POPULATION
10:00 am APX3330: A Clinically Staged Non-Invasive Oral Therapy for Diabetic Retinopathy
Synopsis
- Phase 2 clinical trial results in a placebo-controlled trial showing promising therapeutic potential
- Discussing the biology of Ref-1 and inhibition using APX3330, a first in class agent
- Exploring the promise of DR clinical trials with an oral therapy
10:30 am Speed Networking
Synopsis
An optimal chance to network one-to-one with leading retinal vascular experts working across early discovery, preclinical and clinical stages. Learn how your peers are developing better anti-VEGF drugs, new targets, new modalities and clinical biomarkers and endpoints for better patient treatment and early disease detection
11:15 am Short Break
11:30 am Discussing the Possibility & Potential of Systemically Administered Drugs for Retinal Vein Occlusion & Diabetic Eye Diseases
Synopsis
- Discussing how systemic drugs for retinal vascular diseases can change the paradigm of ophthalmic treatment
- Delving into the mechanism of disease for better insights when treating new therapeutic targets
- Sharing clinical data to showcase that patients with retinal vascular indications can be treated without anti-VEGF
12:00 pm Non-Invasive Micro-Current Electric Stimulation Negatively Regulates Microglia Activation & Angiogenesis
Synopsis
- Exploring micro-current electric stimulation for treatment of nAMD
- Developing a novel non-invasive approach for the regulation of microglia activation to facilitate and mediate angiogenesis, and targeting VEGF pathway in endothelial cells
- Reduction of inflammation and angiogenesis in laser CNV in vivo
12:30 pm Lunch & Networking Break
UNCOVERING NOVEL PRECLINICAL MODELS & APPROACHES TO TACKLE TRANSLATIONAL CHALLENGES WHEN DEVELOPING TREATMENT FOR RETINAL NEOVASCULARIZATION
1:30 pm Exploring Current Advancements in In Vivo Models for Accurate Representation of the Retinal Vascular Microenvironment for Improved Translation into Humans
Synopsis
- Examining the unmet need for high-fidelity animal models of complex, multiple factorial and/or polygenic diseases such as nAMD
- Understanding the challenges with current in vivo models left to age for years, fed special diets or exposed to cigarette smoke to introduce external modulators
- Navigating the required improvements in preclinical in vivo models to accurate replicate human choroidal neovascularization for better translation of therapeutics
- Validating non-animal (in vitro) preclinical models and discussing if they are realistic alternatives to non-human primates
2:00 pm Validation of Murine Subretinal Fibrosis Model: Effective Strategy to Test Anti-Fibrotics
Synopsis
- Introducing Medinect Ophtho’s specialized mouse model for subretinal fibrosis, emulating significant features of fibrovascular lesions seen in nAMD patients
- Exploring the advantages of subretinal fibrosis models over other models, particularly the laser-induced choroidal neovascularization model
- Sharing insights into the subretinal fibrosis model and its relevance to Wet AMD studies
2:10 pm Refining Preclinical Mouse Models to Increase Reproducibility & Reduce Variability to Recapitulate Retinal Neovascularization
Synopsis
- Optimizing animal models for RVO and reducing variability using dye to induce disease without causing retinal damage within mouse models
- Continuing live imaging in animal models using tools for fundus imaging, fluorescein leakage and OCT
- Target identification in animal models and translating therapeutic targets in anti-VEGF non-responders
2:40 pm Afternoon Networking Break
EXAMINING CURRENT ANTI-VEGF THERAPIES IN THE SPOTLIGHT TO ILLUMINATE THE PATH TO MORE EFFICACIOUS RETINAL NEOVASCULARIZATION THERAPIES THROUGH THE PIPELINE
3:10 pm Roundtable Discussion: Navigating the Current Anti-VEGF Treatment & Paving the Path for the Future of Retinal Vascular Disease Drug Development for Improved Patient Care
Synopsis
- Preclinical Models Table: Discovering the latest preclinical models – in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo – being developed and implemented to accurately reflect the retinal vascular environment such as a 3D model of the blood retinal barrier plus expressing key physiological and biological characteristics
- Beyond VEGF Table: Exploring novel target pathways, beyond VEGF, for inhibiting angiogenic factors and regulating various pathways involved in retinal vascular diseases
- Delivery to the Retina: Examining the potential of more durable drug delivery routes to provide less invasive alternatives to intravitreal injections and improve patient compliance
Moderator Feedback & Audience Debate:
Moderators will be assigned to each roundtable to facilitate discussion and collate the findings. Following the roundtable discussions, they will present back to the entire delegation and open up wider audience debate
TREATING RETINAL VASCULAR INFLAMMATION TO SLOW DOWN & EVENTUALLY HALT DISEASE PROGRESSION TO RETINAL NEOVASCULARIZATION
4:10 pm Targeting Underlying Retinal Inflammation to Avoid Disease Progression to Wet AMD
Synopsis
- Developing anti-inflammatory approaches by targeting complement pathway in combination with using anti-VEGF
- Tackling the challenges of complement inhibition molecules upregulating VEGF production and the subsequent progression of Wet AMD by combining salic acid mimetics
- Utilizing Siglecs with an off switch in addition to being activated to control the expression according to the level of inflammation to avoid retinal damage