This year’s American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) annual meeting kicked off across the lake—in Montreal, Canada.
We’ve got a look at a few of the event’s highlights from our time on-site—from product showcases to research updates—so sit back and dive in.
Where to begin?
With the ASRS itself—or, rather, its philanthropic arm. The Foundation of the ASRS hosted a private reception ahead of the meeting to introduce a new strategic program focused on advancing strategic retina health initiatives with a global impact.
This exclusive prelude to the annual meeting featured three speakers from non-profit organizations and an ophthalmic specialty center, respectively:
- Daniel Alter, MD, PhD, of the FOCUS Foundation
- C. Armitage Haper, MD, of Small World Vision
- Robin Ross, MD, of the Global Retina Institute
The topic of discussion: addressing the role of humanitarianism and philanthropy in advancing global health outcomes.
And what was this followed by?
The meeting opened on Wednesday with a programming agenda that emphasized one key message to attendees: look beyond the retina and examine the whole patient.
Among these session: two expert-led (and expert-moderated) discussions:
- Retina Surgery Around the World, in which international retina specialists debated tough cases—uveitic/traumatic detachments, autologous retinal transplants (ART), and pediatric trauma—from the standpoint of adapting techniques to surgery restraints.
- Circus of Complications, a new session featuring discussions by the younger generation of surgeons on clinical practice complications
- Panelists framed surgical errors as universal and instructive, walking through real-time crisis management and prevention pearls for cutter incarceration, suprachoroidal (SC), cannula displacement, and anesthesia-block globe perforation.
See here for the full list of moderators, panelists, and presenters.
Talk about a few more big-picture themes—but from the research side.
Among the most dominant themes from the four-day affair of rapid-fire talks and investigator-led research: durable treatment strategies for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Others included:
- A macular hole “arms race”is underway, with advanced techniques carrying broadly similar success rates, leaving the choice to surgeons’ comfort and resource access rather than clear superiority
- The proper method for positioning tamponade, with silicone oil migration viewed as a shared enemy as well as ongoing debate over how long to leave perfluorocarbon in place and direct perfluorocarbon liquid (PFCL)-to-silicone exchange to avoid air embolism
- A pneumatic retinopexy renaissance is underway, favored for its superior injection capabilities and near-90% success rates—and subretinal gas migration considered a major, prognosis-worsening complication to design
- Inflammation must be controlled prior to operation to improve outcomes in uveitic and traumatic detachments (and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF]) is considered a hazard in tractional disease)
Stick with that anti-VEGF piece for a moment … and talk research.
A few key data sets presented over the four-day event took a closer look at answering whether newer approaches beyond anti-VEGF injections can maintain the same outcomes—just with fewer treatments.
… and which companies presented on this?
Three come to mind:
- 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT) with 2-year phase 2b data from the PRISM trial
- Ocular Therapeutix with phase 3 safety and efficacy data from the SOL-1 trial
- RegenxBio (in partnership with AbbVie) with 2.5-year follow-up phase 2 data from the ALTITUDE trial
- Its candidate: ABBV-RGX-314 (see here for a refresher on this gene therapy)
- Click here for 1-year data from the ALTITUDE trial
- And check out the 2024 positive phase 2 bilateral data readout
- Its candidate: ABBV-RGX-314 (see here for a refresher on this gene therapy)
What’s next?
More research, of course! While we won’t go into every single data readout presented over the meeting’s four days, there are a few other notable callouts we want to highlight.
For instance: Check out our coverage of new real-world data from Astellas on its FDA-approved (and commercially available) IZERVAY (avancincaptad pegol).
- The crux of this research: IZERVAY demonstrated similarities in safety and dosing intervals among patients undergoing concomitant anti-VEGF and IZERVAY.
Speaking of post-market outcomes … didn’t I see some SYFOVRE data?
Indeed you did. The FDA-approved geographic atrophy (GA) pegcetacoplan injection—developed by Apellis Pharmaceuticals’and recently acquired by Biogen—was the subject of 18-month real-world results as well as new data extending GA benefit to patients with concurrent wet AMD.
See here for more from that latter presentation.
Beyond that data, why was this a big event for Biogen?
Keeping in mind its $5.6 billion purchase of Apellis earlier this year, ASRS marked the company’s first meeting with SYFOVRE under its ownership.
Oh that’s right! What else to note?
We’ve got two updates from Nanoscope Therapeutics.
First up: Data from the first direct-to-phase 2 randomized, controlled trial evaluating an optogenetic therapy—sonpiretigene isteparvovec (son-vec; MCO-010)—in a nonhuman primate (NHP) model for GA.
- Check out this rundown on the therapy, which is under development as a one-time, in-office intravitreal (IVT) injection intended to offer a durable restoration of vision.
- Notably, it’s also under evaluation for Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa (RP).
Noted. And regarding the data presented?
This study was conducted in parallel with the phase 2 STARLIGHT study—which evaluated son-vec for Stargardt—and presented by Jordi Mones, MD, PhD, of the Institut de la Macula and Barcelona Macula Foundation, during the ‘Beyond Atrophy’ AMD non-neovascular symposium.
What was measured: safety, expression, and functional efficacy of son-vec, created using optical coherence tomography (OCT)-guided scanning green laser micro-irradiation.
The gist of the findings:
- Son-vec demonstrated clinically meaningful restoration of vision from previously irreversible photoreceptor loss in inherited macular degeneration
- Combined data from STARLIGHT and this phase 2 trial informed the design of two trials:
- STARGAZE (phase 3) for Stargardt
- GENESIS (direct-to-phase-2) for central GA secondary to AMD
- Per the abstract: “Collectively, these data establish MCO optogenetics as a disease-agnostic therapeutic platform for severe vision loss from advanced macular degeneration, regardless of underlying pathophysiology.”
And that second study from the company?
These were durable 3-year REMAIN follow-up data from the RESTORE Phase 2b/3 trial of the optogenetic therapy for RP. See here for a rundown on that RESTORE study (and its data).
- Also important to note: A rolling Biologics License Application [BLA] submission was initiated in July 2025 and is currently underway for this RP indication.
As for this data: Investigators wanted to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of MCO-010 among RP patients in what they referred to as “the first-ever RCT of optogenetic therapy.”
… so what did they find?
Presented by Benjamin Bakall, MD, PhD, of Associated Retina Consultants, the 3-year outcomes determined:
MCO-010 demonstrated “durable, clinically meaningful” BCVA improvements (~3 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy [ETDRS] lines) with “favorable safety, supporting durable efficacy.”
- See here for our coverage on this (based on its original reporting from October 2025).
Definitely noteworthy. Now let's move on …. to phase 3 data.
Of which there was plenty. Ocular Therapeutix shared the latest efficacy and safety results from its SOL-1 study on OTX-TKI (AXPAXLI), an investigational, bioresorbable hydrogel intravitreal (IVT) implant formulated with anti-angiogenic properties.
- Click here for what to know about this asset.
As for this phase 3 trial (see here for details on its setup and outcome measures): SOL-1 is evaluating AXPAXLI as a single injection (versus aflibercept) among newly-diagnosed wet AMD patients.
Didn’t the company already release results?
Yes! In February and April, to be exact.
- Check out the positive superiority data.
- And see here for the additional data readout that followed (which Ocular noted would be used as the basis of a future planned NDA submission).
So what’s the takeaways from this ASRS reporting?
As presented by Dilsher S. Dhoot, MD, of California Retina Consultants, this phase 3 trial was positioned as the first to demonstrate meaningful durability beyond 9 months from a single AXPAXLI injection, with three key findings emphasized:
- Superior durability and vision maintenance vs monthly aflibercept A single OTX-TKI injection significantly outperformed monthly aflibercept on the primary endpoint — 74.1% vs. 55.8% of subjects maintained BCVA at Week 36 (P = 0.0006)
- The gap widened by Week 52 (65.9% vs. 44.2%, P < 0.0001).
- Meaningfully delayed time to rescue treatmentMedian time to first rescue injection differed by 24 weeks between arms (P = 0.0005), and 74.7% of OTX-TKI patients remained rescue-free through Week 36 vs. 56.4% on aflibercept.
- This directly supports reduced injection burden versus standard monthly dosing
- Clean inflammatory/vasculitis safety profile No cases of endophthalmitis or occlusive/non-occlusive retinal vasculitis were reported, and IOI occurred in only 7 subjects (9 events), all mild-to-moderate and resolved.
- The most common adverse event, vitreous floaters (12.4% vs. 1.2%), was tied to the hydrogel's drug-elution process rather than an inflammatory reaction.
What else?
Belite Bio also delivered its latest update from the phase 3 DRAGON trial evaluating oral tinlarebant for the treatment of Stargardt disease.
- As a refresher: Get the full rundown on this once-daily tablet striving to be the first FDA-approved treatment for Stargardt disease type 1 (STGD1)
- And if you recall: The company completed its rolling new drug application (NDA) submission to the FDA for the oral tablet last month.
Now, regarding this data: The results were presented by Paul Bernstein, MD, of the Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, during the Hereditary Retinal Disease & Genetics panel.
Check out the findings here from our original reporting on them (back in December 2025).
A sneak peak:
- The study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating “a statistically significant and clinically meaningful" 36% reduction in retinal lesion growth versus placebo.
- A “statistically significant treatment effect” was also observed in the fellow eye, with a 33.6% lesion growth reduction (p = 0.041)
Duly noted. Now, that can’t be all the research that was presented …
Of course not. There’s a plethora of phase 1 and other phase 2 data we didn't cover—but for the sake of brevity (in keeping with our Glance name), we’ll save those for another time.
Gotcha. So what’s next?
Research aside, quite a few exhibitors were on-site, with a few product showcases on full display. Check back at Glance for that reporting tomorrow.
Edited to add: See here for that coverage.