Bridging Business and Biotechnology: Kodiak Sciences Is Increasing Treatment Efficacy for Retinal Diseases
Victor Perlroth, MD, the Chairman and CEO of Kodiak Sciences, discusses how the company’s ABC platform medicines are designed to treat the leading causes of blindness.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of blindness in adults worldwide. This disease deteriorates the macula, a miraculous little spot on your retina that allows for precise vision in good light. Although several treatments exist for macular deterioration, they require frequent trips to the doctor’s office for uncomfortable but quick and routine injections directly into the eye. The required frequency of the treatments means that most patients miss appointments, leading to undertreatment of the disease and permanent vision loss. In a manufacturing collaboration with Lonza, Kodiak is designing novel antibody-biopolymer conjugate (or ABC) medicines with the same efficacy and safety with much longer durability, allowing patients to visit the doctor on a realistic schedule over the long term. By focusing on business implementation alongside formidable biotech R&D, Kodiak Sciences is on track to bring together the necessary clinical and manufacturing elements for an FDA filing in 2023.
Curious to Know More?
In this most recent episode of “A View On,” Lonza’s Martina Hestericová is joined by Victor Perlroth, MD, the co-founder and CEO of Kodiak Sciences, to talk about the recent developments in AMD treatment research.
KEY TERMS:
Genome: All of the genetic information of an organism. When speaking about the microbiome, it refers to an entirely different organism that is comprised of its own genetic makeup from the host—the interaction between the two genomes is the subject of study known as host-microbiome interaction.
Microbiome: The extremely diverse ecosystem of hundreds, sometimes thousands of different species of microbes found in and on the human body. Microbial biodiversity is key to a healthy microbiome and a poor microbiome is linked to diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, cancer and possibly some central nervous disorders.
Therapeutic translatability: The ability to translate or apply basic research into therapies for the benefit of humans. As we understand more how the complex microbiome works, Professor Elinav asserts that these insights translate directly into ways to manipulate it and improve health.
Personalised or Precision Medicine: A general trend to adapt treatments to individuals instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. In the context of host-microbiome research, as the microbiome is unique to each individual, it could hold the keys to specialized treatments by harnessing the individualized data.