Vantage Biosciences, a new diabetic eye disease company launched by ALSA Ventures, is operating with the principal focus of advancing a new oral therapy in clinical trial development.
Let’s start with ALSA Ventures.
ALSA Ventures is an early-stage investment company with a portfolio of biotechnology companies developing potential novel treatments for diseases with limited or non-existent therapeutic options.
Its portfolio of companies include:
- Promatix- Leverages multi-omic information to develop cancer therapeutics
- Montis Biosciences- Develops immuno-oncology therapies for solid tumors
- Epsilogen- IgE drug pipeline for solid tumors
- Oxford BioTherapeutics- First-in-class immunotherapies for solid tumors
And most recently: Vantage Biosciences.
Talk about Vantage Biosciences.
The biotechnology company is focused on targeting diabetes’ root cause for vision loss: “the neuroinflammatory insult that precedes microangiopathy and leads to degeneration of the neurovascular unit of the eye,” the company stated.
With the recent acquisition of its lead asset VX-01, an oral therapy, the company is planning to launch a phase 2 clinical trial.
Give me more on VX-01.
The oral therapy is a small-molecule amine oxidase copper-containing 3 (AOC-3) inhibitor with a dual mechanism of action (MOA) that targets leukocyte trafficking (which causes inflammation) and pro-inflammatory products of local amine oxidation; it’s currently being developed for daily chronic dosing.
Of note, another name for AOC-3 is vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1).
See the full science here.
What makes it unique?
By focusing on the neurovascular inflammatory events that are thought to result in microvascular sequelae (of which diabetic retinopathy is the most common complication of diabetes), VX-01 offers the potential as an early intervention to modify or even prevent disease progression.
How does this differ from current treatments?
It really comes down to patient compliance/adherence (oral vs intravitreal injections) and the targeted stage of diabetic retinopathy (DR) (early or late) with or without diabetic macular edema (DME).
Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs—considered the current standard for DR treatment and requiring regular intravitreal injections—are designed to target microvascular sequelae in later (not earlier) stages of the disease.
Gotcha. Now back to this planned trial.
According to the company, enrollment for the phase 2 trial is planned for mid-2024 and will target early-stage disease in diabetic patients.
Significance?
By intervening earlier, before irreversible vision damage, VX-01 has the potential to” significantly reduce the burden of diabetic eye diseases and preserve vision in patients at risk,” according to Alek Safarian, ALSA Ventures’ managing partner.