Tenpoint is launching a new era in presbyopia treatment and developing an innovative pipeline targeting the largest areas of unmet need for rejuvenating vision in the aging eye.
Tenpoint’s pipeline includes paradigm-shifting treatments for the largest ophthalmic indications with the greatest need and global market potential: presbyopia, cataracts and geographic atrophy.
Traditional ophthalmic drug development has resulted in therapeutics that only target one element of disease pathology, leading to pharmaceuticals with low responder rates and significant unmet needs. Tenpoint is transforming ophthalmic drug development by creating novel approaches and new chemical entities (NCEs) engineered to disrupt the multiple underlying disease pathologies inherent in sight-threatening diseases, including ocular surface diseases, macular degeneration, glaucoma, presbyopia, and cataracts. Our goal is to bring to market more comprehensive, disease-impacting therapeutics that preserve and restore vision, offering new hope for patients and the eye care professionals who treat them.
With our lead candidate BRIMOCHOL™ PF lighting the way and poised for commercialization, the therapeutics in our pipeline are engineered for efficacy and safety and offer great promise for patients who are experiencing or are at risk of vision loss.
IOP=intraocular pressure; IVT=intravitreal injectable; NCE=new chemical entity; SR=sustained release delivery system.
Presbyopia: the gradual loss of near vision that’s part of the normal aging process and affects 128 million US adults,1,2 typically beginning in their 40s and 50s.3 Currently, the only available corrective treatments include reliance on reading glasses or contacts, surgical correction (LASIK, artificial lens surgery, or implantation of a corneal inlay), or use of short-acting (3-hours) topical pilocarpine. There are currently no pharmaceutical treatment options that will improve near vision throughout the course of a day (6-8+ hours) following a single treatment.
Corneal Wound Healing: Corneal injury from a variety of acute or chronic conditions can lead to patients’ dissatisfaction with visual performance or surgical outcomes. Delayed or poor corneal healing can result from acute conditions such as post-PRK surgery, infections, corneal ulcer, acute dry eye, post-collagen cross-linking for keratoconus, and neurotropic keratitis. Chronic conditions can include keratoconus, Fuch’s corneal dystrophy, contact lens intolerance, and chronic dry eye.
In animal and in vitro studies, a family of salivary and lacrimal peptides known as histatins have been shown to enhance corneal epithelial migration and spreading, increase the rate of wound closure from surgical procedures through rapid re-epithelization, and inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokines Il-6, IL-8,TNF-α, MMP-2, and MMP-9. These factors may mitigate corneal injury in both acute and chronic conditions.
Ocular Hypertension: a condition that results from increased pressure inside the eye, measured as intraocular pressure (IOP), that occurs when the eye’s natural drainage mechanism does not work properly, causing fluid to build up. If the increase in pressure is severe or prolonged, irreversible damage can occur to the retina and optic nerve, leading to a loss in vision in some patients, a condition called glaucoma.
Glaucoma: a group of diseases that cause damage to the optic nerve and can result in vision loss and blindness. It is the second leading cause of blindness globally and affects an estimated 3 million US adults.4
Glaucoma is often caused by high intraocular pressure (IOP), leading to retinal and optic nerve damage. While lowering IOP is currently the only effective treatment for glaucoma, targeting other pathways of retinal and optic nerve injury may offer additional benefits.
Geographic Atrophy (GA): an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affecting the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that sends information to the brain to enable sight.5
AMD is a leading cause of vision loss for older adults.6 AMD does not cause complete blindness but affects central vision, making it harder to see faces, read, drive, or do other closer-up tasks.
References: 1. Zebardast et al. The prevalence and demographic associations of presenting near-vision impairment among adults living in the United States. Am J Ophthalmol. 2017;174:134-144. 2. U.S. Census Bureau. Table 9. Washington: Population Division. 2014. 3. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 7, 2019 from http://www.census.gov. 4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Don’t let glaucoma steal your sight. Accessed August 20, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/resources/features/glaucoma-awareness.html 5. National Eye Institute (NEI). Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) data and statistics. Updated July 17, 2019. Accessed August 20, 2021. https://nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/armd_facts 6. NEI. Age-related macular degeneration. Updated June 22, 2021. Accessed August 20, 2021.
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/age-related-macular-degeneration
