Treatment With OpRegen Shows Improvement in Visual Acuity, Cell Persistence in Dry AMD

New data from the phase 1 clinical trial examining OpRegen in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) show that the subretinal cell therapy may help improve or maintain visual acuity in this patient population, according to a presentation made at the 2022 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting, taking place in Denver, Colorado May 1-4, 2022 and virtually May 11-12, 2022.

The findings, presented by Allen C. Ho, MD, director of retina research and attending surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital, also demonstrated good persistence of OpRegen transplanted cells via alterations in drusen appearance, subretinal pigmentation, and hyper-reflective areas. In addition, in patients whose atrophic areas were extensively covered by the cell suspension (4/12), signs of outer retinal restoration and reduction in geographic atrophy were observed compared with baseline imaging.

OpRegen has been generally well-tolerated with no unexpected adverse events.

In an interview with CGTLive, lead investigator Ho details the findings from this latest analysis and extrapolates the potential of this therapy in dry AMD.

REFERENCE

Ho A, Banin E, Barak A, et al. Safety and Efficacy of a Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of Transplanted Allogeneic Retinal Pigmented Epithelium (RPE, OpRegen) Cells in Advanced Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Presented at: 2022 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting; May 1-4, 2022, Denver, CO; May 11-12, 2022, virtual.