No cure yet exists for wet AMD, but three FDA-approved therapies are slowing the progress of wet AMD and reducing the amount of vision loss. These treatments are ranibizumab (Lucentis), aflibercept (Eylea), and off-label bevacizumab (Avastin). These medications are highly successful, but they must be injected directly into the eye, and the treatment often needs to be repeated. Other methods of stopping blood vessel leakage are, therefore, being sought.
One of those is X-82, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in tablet form under study in the APEX trial by Tyrogenex. In a report to the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting, Nauman A. Chaudhry, MD, presented data from the company’s phase 1 open-label study of 35 patients with wet AMD, in which six treatment regimens at four dose levels of X-82 were administered to 35 patients and evaluated for preliminary safety and efficacy. All patients either maintained or improved vision with few or no intravitreal injections needed. The drug has been found to be safe, with improvement shown in OCT images and visual acuity.
Phase 2 APEX trials are now being conducted at 22 clinical sites in the U.S. and 5 sites in the U.K. For more information, visit clinicaltrials.gov.
