The Penn State spinout has received funding from Pennsylvania state-backed investors to develop a treatment for diabetic dry eye disease.
Ocunova, a US-based ocular disease-focused spinout of Pennsylvania State University (PSU), has raised a $500,000 seed round from two Pennsylvania government-backed investors.
The two backers were non-profit commercialisation firm Life Sciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylvania and seed fund Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Ocunova’s lead compound, OCU-001, reformulates a drug currently approved in the US for managing alcohol and opioid dependence, Naltrexone, as a therapy for diabetes patients suffering from dry eye syndrome.
Dry eye syndrome can cause inflammation, visual disturbances and damage to the ocular surface.
Ocunova will put the seed funding towards the development of OCU-001 ahead of planned clinical trials. It has already concluded a phase 1 study that indicated human patients can tolerate the treatment, as well as animal studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of the drug.
The spinout’s research is being led by Patricia McLaughlin from the Department of Neural and Behavioural Sciences of PSU’s College of Medicine, as well as Joseph Sassani, who works in ophthalmology at Penn State Health Eye Center in the same college.
Michael Shine, chief executive of Ocunova, said: “Current treatments are limited to either over-the-counter eye drops that provide temporary relief to the eye or to prescription, anti-inflammatory medications which have delayed onset of action, variable efficacy and side effects which limit compliance.”
