- ONS-5010 demonstrated to be non-inferior to Lucentis at 12 weeks
- BLA resubmission on track for calendar Q1 2025
- Entered into agreements for warrant inducement transaction expected to result in up to $20.4 million in gross proceeds
Outlook Therapeutics, Inc. (Outlook Therapeutics, or the Company) (Nasdaq: OTLK), a biopharmaceutical company that achieved regulatory approval in the European Union and the United Kingdom for the first authorized use of an ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), announced it has completed the analysis of the complete 12-week safety and efficacy results for NORSE EIGHT, the second of two adequate and well controlled clinical trials evaluating ONS-5010 in wet AMD patients.
ONS-5010 demonstrated noninferiority to ranibizumab at week 12 in the NORSE EIGHT trial. Based on the completed analysis of the 12-week results, Outlook Therapeutics plans to resubmit the Biologics License Application (BLA) for ONS-5010 in the first quarter of calendar 2025.
Julia A. Haller, MD, ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye Hospital and an Outlook Therapeutics Board member, commented, “The 3-month data from NORSE EIGHT provides additional evidence to confirm what retina specialists expected. The clinical trial continues to demonstrate that ONS-5010 injections result in immediate and sustained anatomic efficacy, with steady gains in visual acuity and reliable, consistent safety.”
The difference in the mean between ONS-5010 and ranibizumab was -1.009 best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) letters with a 95% confidence interval of (-2.865, 0.848) in the NORSE EIGHT trial. Applying the statistical parameters from the week 8 primary endpoint with the lower bound of the non-inferiority margin at -3.5 with a 95% confidence interval, the noninferiority margin was met at week 12 (p=0.0043), indicating that the two study arms are not different at this timepoint.
In the intent-to-treat (ITT) population, NORSE EIGHT demonstrated a mean 5.5 letter improvement in BCVA in the ONS-5010 arm and 6.5 letter improvement in BCVA in the ranibizumab arm.
Additionally, the change in central retinal thickness, a measure of anatomical response, was similar in both study arms at all three study timepoints.
As previously announced, in the NORSE EIGHT trial, ONS-5010 did not meet the pre-specified non-inferiority endpoint at week 8 set forth in the special protocol assessment (SPA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, BCVA data across all study timepoints demonstrated an improvement in vision, increasing over time, and the presence of biologic activity. Overall, in NORSE EIGHT, ONS-5010 demonstrated mean visual acuity improvements of +3.3 letters at week 4, +4.2 letters at week 8, and +5.5 letters at week 12.
Additionally, in NORSE EIGHT, ONS-5010 was generally well-tolerated with overall ocular adverse event rates comparable to ranibizumab. The safety results demonstrated across the full duration of NORSE EIGHT are consistent with previously reported safety results from the NORSE ONE, NORSE TWO, and NORSE THREE clinical trials, with no cases of retinal vasculitis reported in either study arm.
“We believe that the statistically significant 12-week results for ONS-5010 in NORSE EIGHT, combined with the complete NORSE EIGHT data set, confirms our successful NORSE TWO pivotal study and will support the resubmission of our BLA in the United States for the treatment of wet AMD,” added Lawrence Kenyon, chief financial officer and interim CEO of Outlook Therapeutics. “Our team continues the necessary work for the planned resubmission of our BLA in the first quarter of calendar 2025. We remain confident in the potential of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA to provide an important therapy for the treatment of wet AMD in place of off-label repackaged bevacizumab that has not received regulatory approval for use in retinal diseases here in the United States.”
In the European Union and the United Kingdom, ONS-5010/LYTENAVA (bevacizumab gamma) has already been granted Marketing Authorization. Outlook Therapeutics intends to begin launching in Europe in the first half of calendar 2025.