Optigo Bio receives People’s Choice Award for its proprietary drug anchoring

(Image credit: ©Aliaksandr Marko/AdobeStock)

Biotechnology company Optigo Biotherapeutics received the People’s Choice Award at the 2025 Eyecelerator meeting for the company’s proprietary drug anchoring and its potential to advance intravitreal drug delivery.¹

The company also presented positive preclinical data at the 2025 annual Associate for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting. The data presented supported Optigo’s proprietary anti-VEGF molecules to achieve dosing intervals of 6 months or longer in treating patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), and retinal vein occlusion (RVO).

The data was shared in Optigo’s presentation, “Developing Breatkthrough Therapies to Restore Vision,” by Houman Hemmati, MD, PhD, chief medical officer and co-founder of Optigo Bio.

“Our bi-functional intravitreal biologics are designed to fundamentally address the limitations of current anti-VEGF therapies by dramatically reducing the dosing frequency,” Hemmati said.

He went on to say that the recognition from industry peers at Eyecelerator, in conjunction with the company’s preclinical data at ARVO, “underscore both the innovation and real-world potential of [the company’s] platform.”

Optigo’s proprietary biologics are described in the press release as, “fusion proteins that combine derisked therapeutics such as aflibercept with an albumin or hyaluronan anchoring domain.”¹ These bifunctional molecules demonstrated 2- to 3-times longer half-life when compared to aflibercept alone when evaluated in VEGF challenge animal models.

“While anti-VEGF therapies have significantly reduced blindness globally, real-world outcomes are limited by the burdensome injection schedule,” said Ali Ardakani, chief executive officer and co-founder of Optigo Bio. “Our platform addresses this bottleneck directly by offering biologics that deliver real world efficacy with fewer injections.”

Optigo continues to actively engage with global pharmaceutical companies, biotech partners, and investors to accelerate development and bring this technology to market and is positioned to capture a significant amount of the growing $14 billion anti-VEGF market, according to the press release.

Reference:

1. Optigo Biotherapeutics Inc. Optigo Biotherapeutics Wins People’s Choice Award at Eyecelerator and Presents Compelling Preclinical Data on Long-Acting Intravitreal Biologics at the ARVO 2025 Conference. GlobeNewswire News Room. Published May 7, 2025. Accessed May 8, 2025. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/07/3075685/0/en/Optigo-Biotherapeutics-Wins-People-s-Choice-Award-at-Eyecelerator-and-Presents-Compelling-Preclinical-Data-on-Long-Acting-Intravitreal-Biologics-at-the-ARVO-2025-Conference.html