Dr Michael Cohen Discusses Accessibility of Future Gene Therapies

Michael N. Cohen, MD, FAAO, retinal surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadephia and Mid Atlantic Retina, speaks about the future of gene therapy and the accessibility and availability of these therapies moving forward.

Transcript

What needs to be done to ensure that new gene therapies for retinal diseases are accessible and affordable for all patients?

So I think that's a great question, and the complexities of that answer are pretty deep. Ultimately, I think we have to make sure first that we have an effective medicine. Right now, it's really promising, and these phase 1 results up to 24 months in our safety and tolerability study look very good. And we look forward to a forthcoming phase 2 efficacy trial, looking at our medicine as a treatment for GA [geographic atrophy] in a patient with AMD [age-related macular degeneration].

More broadly, I think it's important to consider not just the impact that these medications with gene therapy have on the patients and in our case, their visual functioning, but also the potential elimination of some of the other burdens of the other treatments that could potentially be available. I think those are all important things to consider.