This Week in Ophthalmology: Week of September 1, 2024

Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Ophthalmology, a video series highlighting some of the top articles featured on the Ophthalmology Times website.

Coming out of the Labor Day holiday in the United States, it has been an interesting week as we head into fall conference season.

And now, some of this week’s headline content:

Prevent Blindness is teaming up with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and member organizations worldwide in support of World Sight Day.

The theme of this year’s World Sight Day is “Love Your Eyes,” and will focus on the needs of children’s vision and eye health.

On Sept. 12, with support from the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington, Prevent Blindness will host a vision screening and education event, and a congressional briefing.

The congressional briefing will also include information and updates on the recently introduced Early Detection of Vision Impairment for Children Act.

Prevent Blindness this year will kick off a partnership with the National Association of School Nurses to offer a World Sight Day tool kit that includes stickers, bookmarks, printable handouts and more.

Read Now: Prevent Blindness kicks off World Sight Day activities with congressional briefing on Capitol Hill, partnerships and vision screening events nationwide

In other news, the FDA has granted an Orphan Drug Designation for SKG1108 from Skyline Therapeutics for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa.

SKG1108, a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector, is a one-time intravitreally delivered gene therapy utilizing the intravitreal capsid AAV.0106 to deliver single-stranded DNA encoding light-activatable proteins directly to the retina.

Read More: Skyline Therapeutics receives Orphan Drug Designation from FDA for SKG1108

InMed Pharmaceuticals has been issued 3 US patents, one of which is for an ocular drug delivery formulation for potential use in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This formulation and use patent has been granted/allowed in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, and India and is also pending in other jurisdictions.

InMed’s pipeline includes 3 separate programs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s, ocular, and dermatological indications.

Read More: InMed Pharmaceuticals issued US patent for ocular drug delivery formulation for potential use in age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

On the research front, a team of investigators at the Dean McGee Eye Institute examined the accuracy of the vision assessment tools in a commonly used mobile ophthalmology application.

According to the study, the use of mobile ophthalmology applications (MOA) is increasing, but many of these tools have not been validated.

The study, published in the journal Nature, was performed to examine the accuracy of an MOA, Eye Handbook, in measuring 5 commonly-tested vision assessment parameters, including distance visual acuity, near visual acuity, color vision testing, contrast sensitivity, and pupillary distance. They were compared with traditional vision assessment methods.

The prospective crossover clinical trial included 129 patients who had met the inclusion criteria.

The researchers concluded the MOA can potentially be used by eye care providers, health care providers, and patients, both as a screening tool with correction factor and to monitor ocular pathologies.

Read Now: Researchers examine accuracy of a commonly used mobile ophthalmology application’s vision assessment tools