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The acquisition focuses on LayerBio's OcuRing-K technology, with plans to initiate the next clinical trial.

PainReform acquires majority equity interest in LayerBio

Steel and the Glaucoma Research Foundation have a relationship spanning over a decade.

Cynthia Steel, PhD, MBA, appointed as Chief Scientific Officer of The Glaucoma Research Foundation

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 EyePod podcast, Mandeep S. Singh, MD, PhD, speaks with Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD, to learn about the advancements for a novel stem cell patch developed by a team of researchers at USC for the treatment of advanced dry age-related macular degeneration.

Dr. Humayun talks about the inspiration behind the patch, how his expertise in both ophthalmology and biomedical engineering has been crucial, and insights gained from a Phase 1/2a study. Dr. Humayun also outlines the upcoming steps for a multisite Phase 2b clinical trial and envisions the potential future role of the stem cell patch in the treatment of geographic atrophy.

Associate professor of ophthalmology and genetic medicine at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland

Recipient of the 2023 Andreas C. Dracopoulous Professorship in Ophthalmology

Co-Director of the Genetic Eye Diseases (GEDi) Center and principal investigator at the Center for Stem Cells and Ocular Regenerative Medicine (STORM)

University Professor of Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, California

Cornelius J. Pings Chair in Biomedical Sciences

Director, USC Ginsberg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics

Received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Barack Obama in 2016 for his innovative work and development of the Argus II.

In this Ophthalmology Times EyePod podcast, Mandeep S. Singh, MD, PhD, speaks with Mark S. Humayun, MD, PhD, about the progress made by a team of USC researchers on a novel stem cell patch for treating advanced dry age-related macular degeneration.

Innovation Series: A stem cell patch for treating advanced dry AMD

 EyePod podcasts focusing on innovation in ophthalmology. Throughout this series, we'll be hearing insights from various stakeholders including those in clinical practice, academia, and industry. The overarching message in this podcast is intended to be informational and not promotional. Today, our host Ehsan Sadri, MD, engages in a conversation with Jeffry Weinhuff, who is managing partner of Visionary Ventures. And just a quick note: the thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of this publication.

 in Newport Beach, California, and is board-certified, fellowship-trained in treating LASIK, cataract, and glaucoma surgeries. He is a co-founder of Visionary Ventures Fund and a consultant to Tarsus.

, a series of venture capital funds which is a leading investor in drugs and devices for the eye. Visionary has current financial interests and serves on board of directors of the following companies: Aurion Biotech; Centricity Vision; CorneaGen; IanTrek; ONL Therapeutics; Orasis Pharmaceuticals; Pelage Pharmaceuticals; Re-Vana Therapeutics; Surface Ophthalmics; Sydnexis; Surface Ophthalmics; TearClear.

Explore cutting-edge ophthalmology innovations in this new series on the Ophthalmology Times EyePod podcast. Throughout this series, we'll hear insights from various stakeholders in clinical practice, academia, and industry. In this episode, host Ehsan Sadri, MD, engages in a conversation with Jeffry Weinhuff, managing partner at Visionary Ventures, exploring trends and offering advice for individuals driven by an entrepreneurial mindset.

(EyePod) From idea to impact: Navigating ophthalmic innovation

David Hutton from Ophthalmology Times and Jay Duker talk about wet AMD and the burdens of treatment on patients thanks to the consistent need for follow-ups and more.

 This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Welcome to EyePod, a podcast series from Ophthalmology Times in which we engage with key opinion leaders in interviews about the latest innovations in the areas of surgery, clinical diagnosis, therapeutics, imaging, device technology, gene and cell therapy, practice management, and other cutting edge topics. I'm your host, David Hutton. I'm joined today by Doctor Jay Duker, who's going to talk about wet AMD. First, Doctor Duker, let's focus on how this disease disproportionately affects elderly minorities and those in lower economic status.

Well, David, thanks for inviting me, I'm happy to have the discussion around wet age related macular degeneration. First of all, wet AMD is age related. And so it's really not diagnosed in anybody under the age of 60. So it is a disease that disproportionately affects elderly people. And in fact, if you make it to age 80, you have about a one out of three chance of having some degree of macular degeneration. If you make it to age of 90, 50% of 90 year olds and older have some degree of age related macular degeneration. 

The good news is for most of those people, they are affected mildly. They have the form called dry macular degeneration, which can get very serious, but for most people, it doesn't. Wet macular degeneration or neovascular AMD can be a very serious disease if untreated. Good news is we have some very good treatments for wet macular degeneration. The bad news is the treatments aren't a cure, and they need to be repeated, really, every month or two indefinitely for the rest of the patient's life. So what does that mean? 

Well, when you talk about different classes of economic backgrounds in the United States in the disproportionality of it, this is almost entirely a Medicare age group affected. And for those who do not have a secondary carrier, there can be quite a bit of out of pocket expenses, since the medications, which need to be delivered, on average, 6 times or more a year, are approximately $2,000 a dose. There's that level of just the direct cost of the treatment, which needs to be understood, but then there is quite a bit of what I call indirect costs. Indirect costs, if you're 85 years old, and you live alone, and you have limited vision, and you need to get to your doctor every month or two, to have a shot in your eyes so that you don't lose more vision. 

The burden on the family, friends, the community to enable that patient to get to the visits you can imagine can be tremendous. Family members have to take time off from work, or local community needs to pitch in and help out and we see this in our practices really on a daily basis. So those indirect costs to the patient, the community and society are really hard to measure. But they're tremendous. And it's due to what we refer to as the treatment burden of these wet AMD treatments.

You see those lower economic status working later in life. And you know, they can't miss work for their monthly appointments. What kind of stress does that put on the patient not only in their treatment, but maybe creating anxiety, which can also increase...

Again I think that that's just another significant layer of anxiety. When you ask people about their fears, in their health, the fear of going blind is always number one or number two on the list. People are afraid that they will lose their sight and lose their independence and lose their ability to be a functioning member of society. And it's easy as a retina specialist when you're treating, you know, dozens and dozens of patients a day with the same disease to forget the fear that the patients have around that. So that's one part of it. 

The second part is most elderly people who are you know, reasonable health and some who aren't. They want to be independent. They don't want to be dependent on their family. They don't want to be a burden to anybody in the thought of not even just becoming blind but the inability to loose their driver's license, you know, really get themselves around adds fear to that. And of course, then you have that other layer of the economics, the personal ecoomics. How much will this treatment cost me? And if I am still working, how am I going to be able to get out of work a half a day every month to get the treatments that I need to ensure that I can still work. 

That is a whole 'nother layer. Not to mention, the doctor says, "by the way, I'm gonna stick a needle in your eye," and that produces a lot of anxiety amongst most normal people also.

Let's talk a little bit about the disproportionate impact in rural areas with you know, the limited access to treatment and, access to doctors and they have to drive hours to see a specialist. What kind of impact does that have?

So in general, the injections for wet macular degeneration are delivered by retina specialists in the United States. Many comprehensive ophthalmologists, especially those who trained in the last 10 years, are trained in delivering the injections. But not all of them choose to do that. And so if you live in an area where there's not a large city nearby, chances are you're going to have to drive to find your retina specialist. It can be very inconvenient, it can require a lot of effort. 

And during, you know, if you're in a northern climate during the winter, you may miss a visit, because of weather related issues. I guess you could say that anywhere in the country, though the weather might be different in Texas than it is in Minnesota. But yes, so those kinds of things happen. You can get sick, you can miss a visit. And then the worry that the missed visit is going to lead to irreversible severe visual loss adds to the anxiety. Obviously, if you live around the corner from your retina specialist and you can walk to their office, that's really not a big, big problem.

You are 3 hour trip away and your family member needs to take time off to drive you. It is a big problem. Now, the disproportionality based on where patients live and where the doctors are available, that's a hard one to solve. 

Although, diagnostically we didn't even go into that we were talking more about treatment, but making the initial diagnosis of what macular degeneration – by the way, it is very important to make the diagnosis as early as possible, because there's a lot of good evidence when the blood vessels that are leaking are caught early. While the vision is still good, it's a much higher chance to preserve the vision in the long term. So early diagnosis is critical here. and that's another problem. 

If your routine eye doctor is an hour away and you've got a little bit of distorted vision, you might say maybe I'll give it a couple of weeks before I bother them. Versus the ability to get in to somebody because you live in an urban area and it's quite convenient to just get in there. So even the visual loss that can result from the economic and societal barriers to getting into a doctor from a rural area are tremendous. 

Now, to anticipate the next question – What can be done about it? The good news is we are getting far along with remote diagnostics in retina. More specifically, there are photographic machines and forms of optical coherence tomography or OCT, which can be done in the home. And those devices I believe in the next 10 years are really going to revolutionize the way we diagnose retinal disease and other diseases like glaucoma, for example. 

And really provide the opportunity for those in underserved areas in rural areas to get diagnostic testing, even outside of a specialist's office that enables them to get an early diagnosis and direct them towards the best treatment.

You touched upon early diagnosis quite a bit there. Is this an opportunity for some sort of co-management between ophthalmologists and optometrists where maybe...

Already exists! I think everywhere in the country that already exists. It's an excellent opportunity, because for the most part, optometry does provide a lot of the primary eye care. and I mentioned optical coherence tomography or OCT You have been working with it for over 30 years. And at the beginning it was a research tool. And then it was an expensive tests that only retinal specialists have. 

Now every comprehensive ophthalmologist, or practically every optometrist in United States has a machine or access to the machine, they can all make the diagnosis of wet macular degeneration with experience quite easily. And pretty soon there's going to be a software in that machine that enables the machine to make the diagnosis. The OCT has now broken out into the larger medical community. 

Neurologists especially have them in their offices, and I think you will see increasingly lower endo CT in home OCT provide that type of diagnostic testing at point of service in an internists office, in the local mall, or even in patients homes.

So basically, does this come down to educating patients so they they are up on this and can help with early diagnosis. Visit your eye doctor, your optometrist more frequently to ensure that you don't suffer vision loss that is irreversible.

I think the first part, both are important. But the first part is, the really important part is educating people over the age of 60 – What are the symptoms of macular degeneration? 

Which are primarily trouble with reading fine print, distortion, straight lines looking crooked, blind spots, gray areas, and if any of those occur suddenly that they need to be evaluated by their eye care professional right away. That is really paramount. The second part about earlier visits, you know, interestingly, if you have a disease that you're not at high risk for. Or such, as you know, let's suppose you're screening for macular degeneration, but you're screening, a person who has no high risk characteristics for it. 

Screening them more than once a year probably doesn't do any good. On the other hand, if you have someone who's been identified with high risk characteristics, lesions in their macula like drusen, for example, or pigmentary changes, or macular degeneration in the fellow eye. And we know they're high risk, then it makes sense to screen them for the disease to try to catch it when it's asymptomatic prior to them trying to diagnose it themselves with the symptoms.

And lastly, let's talk a little bit about the impact on patients who are on Medicare [or] Medicaid, and may be higher risks for loss of follow up.

You know, so again, the population in wet macular degeneration in the United States is almost entirely a Medicare population. And so that's generally the the older population that we're dealing with. 

There's some pretty good data out there, that missed visits really matter when you have wet macular degeneration. There's a study that was done out of the Cleveland Clinic, where they looked at during COVID. Patients who had wet macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema and missed visits because of the COVID crisis and missed injections as a result. And they found that even a single missed injection could result in permanent decreased vision that was not recovered when the patient started to get their injections again. 

So missed visits, due to whatever reason; economics distance, lack of a social network, sickness in the patient, that can impact, absolutely, the long term disease. So that's not a simple solution. You know, having a network of retinal specialists to do injections in more rural areas would not be easy, would not be cheap. Trying to improve those type of transportation issues, I think is something that society may want to look at, given the high cost of blindness in all populations, but especially in the elderly.

Maybe something we didn't really touch upon looking to the future. Where do you see AMD treatment going in the next 3 years?

Well, I kind of mentioned, one of my biases already is that point of service and home diagnostics are the wave of the future, not just in retina, but in all of ophthalmology. 

Our specialty really lends itself to these type of diagnostics, in the ability – you know, the technology is there now. It's how do you scale it? How do you design it so that it's beneficial to society and the payers, whether it's government or insurance sees the benefit to roll it out as well. That's a little bit more complicated. 

From a therapeutic perspective, I think longer acting therapies, that act longer than just a month or two is the holy grail of wet macular degeneration treatment. And there are many companies in many approaches, including higher doses of the medications that we use now. Small molecules sustained release devices, as my company is working on, and gene therapy, which has the hope of being almost a one and done treatment. 

Where you could inject a gene therapy in the office or in the operating room to a patient and potentially be finished with the wet AMD therapy after that. So there's a lot of interest in this. There's a lot of research going into it. In the next 3 years, I think you're going to see higher doses of some of the approved medications that become available. Some of those other therapies I think are probably a few more years away.

Great, great information. Thanks for listening to this episode of EyePod by Ophthalmology Times. If there are topics you would like to hear about, let us know. You can also stay connected with us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. We'll see you next time.

David Hutton from Ophthalmology Times and Jay Duker talk about wet AMD and the burdens of treatment on patients thanks to the consistent need for follow-ups and more. 

Podcast: Wet AMD and the treatment burden on patients

Sandoz will oversee commercialization of the product across the European Union (excluding Germany), Switzerland, Norway, Australia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Malaysia under the terms of the agreement.

Lupin and Sandoz sign licensing deal for biosimilar ranibizumab across multiple regions

The Portal study is a long-term extension of the phase 3 Archway study

Genentech announces 5-Year data of susvimo for wet AMD from Portal study

EyePoint Pharmaceuticals completes enrollment for the LUCIA trial, advancing DURAVYU's potential as a new treatment for wet AMD.

EyePoint completes enrollment of LUGANO and LUCIA trials

Alteogen receives positive CHMP opinion for aflibercept biosimilar, EYLUXVI

KIO-104 is for the treatment of a wide range of ocular diseases, including ocular inflammation, uveitis, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and complications as a result of refractive surgery.

Kiora Pharmaceuticals Secures US Patent for KIO-104 

Vision outcomes from the DAVIO 2 trial: A phase 2 trial of EYP-1901 vs aflibercept for treatment of neovascular AMD with Jennifer I. Lim, MD

Vision outcomes from the DAVIO 2 trial: A phase 2 trial of EYP-1901 vs aflibercept for treatment of neovascular AMD

Jennifer Lim from the University of Illinois at Chicago presented the DAVIO-2 study, a non-inferiority clinical trial comparing EYP-1901 to aflibercept for treating neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 

The study design involved 3 randomized arms: a low-dose EYP-1901 (2 mg), a high-dose EYP-1901 (3 mg), and aflibercept, which was administered every 8 weeks after 3 initial loading doses. Patients were permitted supplemental aflibercept based on pre-specified criteria throughout the one-year study period. The primary endpoint focused on measuring best-corrected visual acuity at weeks 28 and 32. 

Notably, despite receiving only 1 dose, the EYP-1901 arms demonstrated non-inferior vision compared to the aflibercept arms receiving repeated treatments. Lim highlighted several key characteristics of the EYP-1901 drug. It was bioerodible and non-peglated, capable of providing a sustained, zero-order kinetic release over 6 months. This unique property suggested potential for reducing treatment frequency for patients. 

The study participants were particularly complex, having previously undergone treatment for neovascular AMD. On average, they had received 10 anti-VEGF injections in the year preceding enrollment, classifying them as high-need patients. The research's implications were significant for future treatment strategies. The ongoing phase 3 study, which was fully enrolled at the time of presentation, planned to dose patients every 6 months based on the promising phase 2 results. Lim emphasized that the study offered potential for a new treatment option that could minimize the need for frequent re-injections, potentially improving patient experience and treatment adherence in managing neovascular AMD. The primary action item was to await the results of the phase 3 study, which would provide further insights into the efficacy and long-term performance of EYP-1901 as a treatment for neovascular AMD.

ASRS 2025: Vision outcomes from the DAVIO 2 trial

CCOI sets the stage for global ophthalmic innovation at Stanford Summit on July 23

On the eve of the CCOI-Stanford Summit, to be held July 23, 2025, at Stanford University, Joel S. Schuman, MD, President of the Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Innovation (CCOI), outlined the mission and vision of the organization’s evolution and purpose. “The CCOI is the Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Innovation,” Schuman explained, “and it was started several years ago…by Mark Blumenkranz.”

Originally focused on imaging, the group recently rebranded to reflect its broadened mission. “We changed our name… to drive innovation in ophthalmic medical products worldwide,” Schuman said. The CCOI has grown from 6 to 17 working groups, tackling areas from artificial intelligence and interoperability to disease-specific initiatives in glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and ocular oncology. “These work groups are all led by world-class individuals,” he added, underscoring the global nature of the leadership.

The CCOI functions as a nonprofit 501(c)(3), bringing together a wide array of stakeholders across academia, industry, regulatory agencies, and patient advocacy groups. “The mission of the CCOI is to convene a cohesive but diverse group of key stakeholders… and advance innovation through consensus,” said Schuman. Leading the organization alongside him is Malvina Eydelman, MD, who serves as Chief Executive Officer and brings decades of regulatory expertise from her leadership role at the FDA.

One of its structural cornerstones is the stakeholder council, comprising over 80 members. “The council brings together diverse members… to identify and overcome key obstacles to ophthalmic medical product innovation.” This year’s summit represents a milestone in CCOI’s work to “enhance collaboration across the ophthalmic landscape.”

As Schuman noted, “We are very excited about what is happening at CCOI”—and the summit at Stanford promises to be a pivotal gathering in shaping the future of ophthalmic innovation.

President Joel S. Schuman, MD, highlights the group’s mission and vision for the future—uniting 17 working groups and over 80 stakeholders.



Accelerating eye health innovation through CCOI – Stanford Summit

On July 23, 2025, the Ophthalmic Innovation Symposium and Workshop 2025: From Concept to Clinic will take place at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Presented by the Bay Area Ophthalmology Consortium and the Byers Eye Institute at the Stanford University School of Medicine—in conjunction with the Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Innovation (CCOI)—this event is set to unite leaders from across the eye care ecosystem to accelerate impactful innovation.

Led by Malvina Eydelman, MD, chief executive officer, the CCOI portion of the program will explore a wide range of critical themes. Among the presenters is Jim Mazzo, executive chairman of Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, who recently sat down with 

 to offer a preview of what his presentation will focus on regarding accelerating eye health innovations through CCOI. “It’s never dull in our space,” Mazzo quipped, “and I would say that is true—my forty-seventh year in this space.”

Mazzo will spotlight a pressing paradox: despite remarkable strides in diagnostics and surgical precision, global blindness continues to rise. “If I was a patient—which I am—why is blindness still a tremendous problem for us?” he asked. His answer points to the systemic siloing of innovation. “You’ve got researchers, you’ve got clinicians, you’ve got engineers, and obviously the end user, the patient, all kind of working in isolation.”

CCOI, Mazzo highlighted, is stepping in to unify stakeholders through a “global inclusive and transparent ecosystem,” one that harmonizes regulators, payers, innovators, and clinicians. “Align the incentives,” he said. “When incentives are aligned in any business, it’s dramatic change.”

The summit will also highlight emerging enablers like AI, real-world evidence, and smart diagnostics. “We have these unbelievable, as I call them now, smart diagnostics,” Mazzo noted, “and they need to be embedded in these ecosystems.”

Ultimately, Mazzo calls on all ophthalmology stakeholders—policymakers, startup founders, researchers, and patient advocates—to engage with CCOI’s mission. “We can't solve these vision challenges with yesterday’s innovation model,” he said. “If we don’t break these barriers and move these silos together, we’re never going to get to what the patient requires today.”

Jim Mazzo is among the presenters who will highlight the need to break silos and accelerate eye health solutions at the Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Innovation (CCOI) meeting at Stanford University on July 23, 2025.

ARVO 2025 Yuhua Zhang, PhD

At ARVO 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Yuhua Zhang, PhD, talked about his presentation on in vivo imaging of retinal pigment epithelium metabolic function in age-related macular degeneration

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Hi. My name is Yuhua Zhang. I'm a professor of ophthalmology at the Department of Ophthalmology UCLA. I'm a principal investigator at the advanced imaging lab of the Doheny Eye Institute. At this ARVO, I'm very excited to present our recent development in adaptive optics, high resolution fluorescence lifetime imaging of ophthalmoscopy. This is a brand new instrument. It can image directly one of the most important cells that name the retinal pigment epithelium, shortened as RPE cells. These cells support the critical visual component named the photoreceptor. These cells transduct the light into visual signal. Age-related macular degeneration is a disease that attacks these cells. 

Currently clinical instruments available in the market, most of them don't have the imaging ability to directly image these cells. In my lab, we develop adaptive optics that enhance the retinal imaging. We can direct the imaging the photoreceptor cells, and now we cannot directly image the RPE cells, not only the cell structure. That means we can know they are there. More importantly, we know how they are functioning, because precision medicine is a bigger goal. You're treating the AMD using the personalized treatment. So the retinal imaging definitely can play a critical role in this mission. So the goal in my lab is that we want to develop the RPE cells function and with a broad field of view with a short imaging time, and we can move it outside of the lab, put into the clinic. And also, we are going to build the most of the more advanced instruments to directly image the retina's blood supply tissue, the choroid. 

That's a bigger goal in my life. The bigger data, that's a very important that's you really can know, from a broader scope, we know the disease the pathogenesis, how the disease progresses on the overall human kind, how did it can be treated. But if we come back to individuals, because of the individual eye's properties, so the retinal imaging definitely can provide the most precise diagnosis at this individual level. For example, retinal imaging, particularly for the adaptive optic imaging we are doing, that it's not at this stage. It's not like the general instrument. It can image the patient, but it's really a living microscope. It's the same thing if we compare the clinical instrument like a microscope, actually the adaptive optic retinal imaging represented the electron microscope that is a truly provided the ultra structure function at the cell level and even to molecular level. 

That truly provides the insight into the underlying pathogenesis, the mechanism by which the disease really attacks the photoreceptor, and it's a supporting system. So to speak, in such a microscopy provided a fundamental understanding of the disease mechanism. It's can better serve the bigger data on the on country, on reverse direction. The dig data really gives us a direction to do to put the disease the microscope.

ARVO 2025: Adaptive optics imaging of AMD

ARVO 2025 Xiaolin Wang, MS

At ARVO 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Xiaolin Wang, MS, talked about her presentation on in vivo imaging of retinal pigment epithelium metabolic function in AMD

Hello. My name is Xaiolin Wang. I'm a senior research associate from Doheny Eye Institute. In parts of the physiology of wet AMD, we know RPE is a crucial role. Being able to assess RPE function has been challenging clinically. RPE health is estimated by fundus autofluorescence. Since fundus autofluorescence is intensity based imaging is can only provide qualitative assessment. AOFLIO is a new image modality. It can give a fluorescence lifetime of the fluorophore in the retina or RPE cells. However, AOFLIO doesn't have cellular level resolution due to the eyes optical defects. So when we have imaging for the whole retinas will be excited. So we don't know the photons come from which retina layers and which cells, but in the adaptive optics, we can correct the aberration of the imaging light caused by the eyes optical defects, so we can assure AOFLIO forms the image on the cellular layer allows us to merit RP function structures simultaneously. At Doheny Eye Institute, we are build up a research AOFLIO instrument, working with leading scientist at Donheny we studied neovascular AMD in the living patient. 

At ARVO 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Xiaolin Wang, MS, talked about her presentation on in vivo imaging of retinal pigment epithelium metabolic function in AMD.

AMD

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