Nanoscope Therapeutics Enhances Mutation-Independent Retinal Gene Therapy Programs with Appointment of Allen C. Ho, MD, as Chief Medical Advisor

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Apr 25, 2024, 07:00 ET

DALLAS, April 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanoscope Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing gene therapies for retinal degenerative diseases, announced today the appointment of Allen C. Ho, MD, FACS, FASRS, as Chief Medical Advisor, where he will help define the strategy of developing the gene mutation-agnostic therapies. Dr. Ho is Attending Surgeon and Director of Retina Research at Wills Eye Hospital and Co-Director of the Wills Eye Hospital Retina Service.

"We are excited to have Dr. Allen C. Ho join Nanoscope as Chief Medical Advisor," said Sulagna Bhattacharya, Nanoscope co-founder and CEO. "As a world-renowned retina specialist and leader in innovative treatments for retinal diseases, his insight will be invaluable to Nanoscope. MCO-010 has the potential to be the first gene therapy available for patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and Dr. Ho's contributions will help ensure that potential. We also look forward to adding his perspective to our development of MCO-010 for Stargardt disease, building upon the promising results of our Phase 2 STARLIGHT clinical trial."

"I look forward to working even more closely with the team members and leadership at Nanoscope who have been working on ambient light sensitive optogenetic strategies for retinal diseases over the past decade," said Dr. Ho. "The recent release of their 2-year Phase 2b RESTORE Trial data is an important moment for the retina community and I am pleased to help deliver this transformational treatment to serve those suffering from advanced RP. Further, I am also excited about the Nanoscope pipeline and translational potential of image-guided non-viral laser delivery of MCO-020 in improving vision in patients with geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration".

Allen C. Ho, MD, FACS, FASRS
Allen C. Ho MD, FACS is Attending Surgeon and Director of Retina Research and Co-Director of the Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital, Professor of Ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University and partner of Mid Atlantic Retina. He maintains special interests in macular diseases, diabetic retinopathy, surgical retinal diseases and clinical trials investigating new treatments for vitreoretinal diseases including gene and cell therapies and new surgical drug delivery devices and techniques. His experience includes collaborative translational and clinical trial clinical research with expertise in study design, methodological testing, data analyses, surgical instrumentation and procedure development, execution and communication of these studies and their study results, and commercialization focusing on patient access to care. Dr. Ho has served on the US FDA Ophthalmic Device Panel, American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Innovation Task Force, AAO Ophthalmic Retina Technology Assessment Committee, AAO Retina Measures Group, AAO IRIS Registry Committee and is a leader of Eyecelerator, the largest ophthalmic innovation meeting in the world.

About Nanoscope Therapeutics, Inc.
Nanoscope Therapeutics is developing gene-agnostic, sight-restoring optogenetic therapies for the millions of patients blinded by inherited retinal diseases, for which no cure exists. The company's lead asset, MCO-010, recently reported topline results from the RESTORE Phase 2b/3 multicenter, randomized, double-masked, sham-controlled clinical trial in the U.S. for retinitis pigmentosa (NCT04945772). The company has also recently completed their end-of-study visit for the Phase 2 STARLIGHT trial of MCO-010 therapy for patients with Stargardt disease (NCT05417126). MCO-010 has received FDA fast track designations and FDA orphan drug designations for both retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt disease. Preclinical assets include non-viral laser-delivered MCO-020 gene therapy for geographic atrophy. To learn more, visit www.nanostherapeutics.com and follow them on LinkedIn.

Investor Contact:
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
[email protected]

SOURCE Nanoscope Therapeutics