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I was underwhelmed by the annual meeting, not just the style (there were dozens of digs at the internet) but the lack of substnace. Of the three great hopes for this company, IV-205, the glaucome diagnostic kit, and a drug delivery device for getting eye drops to the back of the eye to treat macular degeneration, none sounded as if there'd be any near-term payoff. the larger IV-205 Phase 2 trial, like the Phase 3, will have 400 subjects and take a year in all (including subject recruitment). Plans for the diagnostic kit -- about to be launched last year we were told then -- have changed, apparently because the company determined there was too small a market for a congenital glaucome kit so they reformulated it to include the main non-congenital form. The only problem is that its not expected to replace the current routine eye pressure test, but to supplement it, since genetics seems to account for only 60% of this type of glaucoma. There is some doubt in my mind as to whether there really is a market here. And the new drug delivery system was not demonstrated, although there was a silly demonstration of a corporate officer taking a cheek swab for a genetic test and getting the current standard glaucome test. I wonder if anyone knows if the drug delivery implant at the back of the eye for macular degeneration that Bauch and Lomb said it was developing through the acquisition of Control Delivery Systems is likely to corner the market, or if ISV's back-of-eye eye dropper will be able to compete? |
