Gene therapy startup targets retinal diseases

A new biotech company has launched with the aim to restore and improve the vision of patients with retinal diseases through gene therapy.

Beacon Therapeutics was co-founded by professor of ophthalmology Robert MacLaren as a spin-out business from the University of Oxford and started with £96m in funding.

It intended to provide novel gene therapy technology and the clinical trial design that it hoped would eventually lead to its approval for use in treatment.

MacLaren commented: ‘Beacon Therapeutics is quite unique in being a company that at launch is already underpinned by excellent clinical trial data. The company has both highly innovative retinal gene therapy programmes and the means to target them to the main causes of blindness in both the young and old.’