Rare Daily Staff
Vedere Bio II, which raised $77 million in 2021 to develop next generation ocular gene therapies, said it is winding down operation.
The company was founded by leaders of Vedere Bio, which Novartis acquired in September 2020. Vedere Bio II sought to develop gene therapies that could restore vision due to photoreceptor death in people with vision loss due to genetic and non-genetic causes.
“We set a high bar for success, and a broad set of preclinical efficacy studies were performed to determine if we cleared that bar,” the company said in a statement posted on its website. “Based on the results of those studies, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our efforts.”
Vedere aims to increase the quality of vision restoration and preservation for all patients with vision loss due to photoreceptor death through delivery of novel payloads via proprietary intravitreally delivered AAV capsids. While most current gene therapies are targeted to specific gene mutations and only slow down vision loss, Vedere’s technology is mutation agnostic and has the potential to rapidly add new function regardless of disease stage.
The company’s pipeline included treatments for inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) and geographic atrophy (GA), unbound by the specific underlying genetic cause.
Photo: Cyrus Mozayeni, co-founder, president and CEO of Vedere Bio
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