Eleven Biotherapeutics presents positive data on eye disease candidates

US-based Eleven Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: EBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics to treat eye diseases, has presented data for two of its novel protein therapeutics demonstrating the key role of cytokine biology to target both front and back of eye diseases at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2014 Annual Meeting in Orlando, USA.

Clinical data on Eleven’s lead drug candidate, EBI-005, the first IL-1 (Interleukin-1) signaling inhibitor designed for topical ocular administration, demonstrated improvements in signs and symptoms of dry eye disease (DED), including reduction in ocular pain and artificial tear use. In addition, preclinical data on EBI-029, an IL-6 (Interleukin-6) inhibitor optimized for localized ocular administration in diabetic macular edema (DME), has demonstrated that EBI-029 potently inhibits IL-6 signaling in vitro. IL-6 is a cytokine that has previously been shown to be upregulated in DME, contributing to the angiogenic and inflammatory components of the disease and correlating with disease severity. By inhibiting IL-6, EBI-029 could offer an alternative to current standard of care, including anti-VEGF therapies.

Improvement in dry eye disease