Ohr Pharma’s OHR-102 shines in Phase II study for macular edema

Shares of ophthalmic R&D firm Ohr Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: OHRP) shot 37% higher to $3.11 yesterday, after it released new clinical data on its macular edema drug candidate.

Ohr announced positive final results from a Phase II investigator sponsored clinical trial of OHR-102 (0.2% squalamine lactate ophthalmic solution) in patients with macular edema secondary to branch (BRVO) and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO).

The results demonstrated that, following an initial 10 week combination therapy treatment period, patients who continued to receive a combination of topical OHR-102 BID plus Lucentis (ranibizumab) achieved greater visual acuity gains than the control group who received Lucentis alone. At week 38, the mean gain in visual acuity from baseline for patients randomized (at week 10) to treatment with OHR-102 + Lucentis PRN was +27.8 letters compared with +23.3 for patients randomized to treatment with Lucentis plus PRN alone (control group), a clinically meaningful difference of +4.5 letters. The data were presented by John Wroblewski, a retina specialist at Cumberland Valley Retina Consultants on Saturday, July 11 at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) in Vienna, Austria.