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EW MEETING REPORTER 78 November 2016 Reporting from OIS@AAO, October 13, Chicago Reporting from OIS@AAO O IS@AAO took place on October 13 ahead of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting in Chica- go. The summit featured its popular breakfast breakout sessions before kicking off the meeting with a look at the year in review. This year, OIS@ AAO had more than 900 attendees. Emmett Cunningham Jr., MD, San Francisco, spoke about some recent- ly approved products and devices, as well as some with Phase 3 results hoping for upcoming approval. Reducing intravitreal injections One session featured updates on innovative work being done in the posterior segment space. An idea that dominated was reducing—or even eliminating—in- travitreal injections. "There is a huge treatment burden on patients and now retinal ophthalmologists to give injec- tions," said Jeffrey Cleland, PhD, Graybug Vision (Redwood City, California). Representatives from Clearside Biomedical (Alpharetta, Georgia), Alimera Sciences (Alpharetta, Geor- gia), Ocular Therapeutix (Bedford, Massachusetts), and Graybug Vision presented on different drug delivery systems that could lead to fewer intravitreal injections. Daniel White, Clearside Bio- medical, spoke about the company's "exclusive and proprietary access to 17 square centimeters in the eye," the suprachoroidal space, using a microinjection platform. "Our goal is rapid vision gain …, fewer injections, and improve the risk-to-benefit profile," Mr. White said, explaining that while intravitreal injections, for example, might work for some compounds, others, like steroids, are not as viable due to IOP concerns. This makes the suprachoroidal space attractive for targeting some therapies for the posterior segment. Dan Myers, Alimera Sciences, highlighted the company's intrav- itreal 3.5 mm drug delivery device ILUVIEN, which is capable of deliv- ering a daily dose of a steroid for up to 3 years. Ocular Therapeutix is in the early stages of developing two inject- able hydrogels for extended drug delivery, and Graybug Vision is cre- ating particles that aggregate upon injection for longer-lasting release. Another injection-reducing drug delivery model is, of course, drops. Paul Chaney with PanOptica (Bernardsville, New Jersey), Megan Baldwin with Opthea (South Yarra, Victoria, Australia), and Jason Slaker with Ohr Pharmaceutical (New York) each described what their companies are working toward for topical therapies for wet AMD. "There is an [unmet] need for a noninvasive topical product that has potential to improve visual acuity and maintain visual gains," Mr. Slaker said. Other companies featured in- cluded Aura Biosciences (Cambridge, Massachusetts), AGTC (Alachua, Florida), Aerpio Therapeutics (Cin- cinnati), Allegro Ophthalmics (San Juan Capistrano, California), Tracery Ophthalmics Inc. (Provo, Utah), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (Crestwood, Kentucky), and Notal Vision (Tel Aviv, Israel). Company showcases and updates The anterior segment company showcase featured presentations from Avedro (Waltham, Massa- chusetts), Z Lens (St. Petersburg, Florida), PowerVision (Belmont, California), Novaliq (Heidelberg, Germany), Zepto (Mynosys, Fremont, California), ReVision Optics (Lake Forest, California), AcuFocus (Irvine, California), Encore Vision (Fort Worth, Texas), Mati Therapeutics (Austin, Texas), Envisia Therapeutics (Morrisville, North Carolina), Ivantis (Irvine, California), Sensimed AG (Lausanne, Switzerland), TearScience (Morris- ville, North Carolina), LacriScience (Washington, D.C.), and SightLife (Seattle). A company showcase of public device and biopharma companies featured presentations from Aerie Pharmaceuticals (Irvine, California), Inotek Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, Massachusetts), QLT (Vancouver, Canada), Adverum Biotechnologies (Menlo Park, California), pSivida View videos from OIS@AAO 2016: EWrePlay.org Rajesh Rajpal, MD, discusses Avedro's keratorefractive technology available in Europe and crosslinking available in the U.S. Sponsored by

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