Another new drug offers hope for Stargardt patients

Another drug to potentially treat Stargardt has shown positive results in slowing down the progression of the disease in a recent trial.

Alkeus Pharmaceuticals has revealed promising early results from its TEASE-3 clinical trial of the drug ALK-001. When given to young people in the early stages of the disease, it appears to be able to halt progression before retinal damage and vision loss occurs.

The trial 

Similar to Remofuscin, the trial looked at early-stage Stargardt disease. It saw three teenagers treated with the drug and during the two to six years of treatment none of the trial participants saw any deterioration in their condition.

Projections suggested that without treatment, the participants would typically experience vision loss within two years, similar to their untreated siblings with identical genetic mutations.

Leonide Saad, CEO of Alkeus Pharmaceutical is hopeful about gildeuretinol acetate stopping sight loss from Stargardt disease, especially if treated early.

Dry AMD 

In addition to the Stargardt trials, Alkeus Pharmaceuticals is also testing the drug on 200 people with late-stage dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), also known as geographic atrophy (GA).  

For more information, visit Alkeus Pharmaceutical's website.