Health and Healthcare

Ophthotech Rises on Positive Mid-Stage Results

Chris Lange

Published: October 31, 2016 2:54 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:42 am

Ophthotech Corp. (NASDAQ: OPHT) is watching its shares rise in Monday’s trading session after the company reported results from its mid-stage trial of Fovista in combination with Lucentis for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Essentially, these results met the pre-specified primary efficacy endpoint of mean change in visual acuity.

Patients receiving the combination of Fovista and Lucentis gained a mean of 10.6 letters of vision on the ETDRS standardized chart at 24 weeks, compared to 6.5 letters for patients receiving Lucentis monotherapy. This represents a 62% additional benefit from baseline. No significant safety issues were observed for either treatment group in the trial.

Topline data from the two Phase 3 clinical trials of Fovista is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.

For some background, Ophthotech is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of novel therapeutics to treat back of the eye diseases, with a focus on developing innovative therapies for AMD. Ophthotech’s most advanced product candidate, Fovista anti-PDGF therapy, is in Phase 3 clinical trials for use in combination with anti-VEGF therapy that represents the current standard of care for the treatment of wet AMD.

Samir Patel, M.D., President and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Ophthotech, commented:

We are honored to have the findings of the Phase 2b Fovista combination therapy study in wet AMD patients published in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a highly-respected peer-review publication. The strength of results of this large trial represent the basis for our Fovista in combination with anti-VEGF therapy Phase 3 registration program for the treatment of wet AMD.

So far in 2016, Ophthotech has vastly underperformed the broad markets with the stock down 57% in this time.

Shares of Ophthotech were last trading up nearly 10% at $35.54, with a consensus analyst price target of $92.91 and a 52-week trading range of $31.50 to $80.00.