Ellex eye treatment shows promise in early AMD

Results from a study of Ellex Medical Lasers’ (ASX:ELX) Retinal Rejuvenation Therapy (2RT) in early age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The pilot study, which was conducted at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), has been written up in Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.

The results show a 44% reduction in drusen - the accumulation of waste deposits in the macula - in treated eyes. Drusen are a key risk factor to progression to end-stage, blinding AMD.

Of the 50 patients enrolled in the trial, 11 were considered to be at the greatest risk of disease progression. After treatment, seven had improved sufficiently to be removed from this category.

The study concluded that 2RT warrants ongoing evaluation as a potential early intervention treatment for AMD.

“This is a really important result because, currently, when a patient is diagnosed with early AMD they are told that nothing can be done until the disease reaches its late stages, by which time some patients have suffered irreversible vision loss,” Ellex CEO Tom Spurling commented.

“With 2RT, we aim to treat the cause of AMD before vision is lost ... We are accelerating and expanding the current ongoing multi-centre, double-blind, randomised controlled LEAD clinical trial across a larger and more diverse patient sampling in order to validate these clinical findings.”

Existing treatment options are also restricted to treating late-stage complications from the wet form of the disease, which only accounts for 10-15% of diagnoses.

AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world, affecting an estimated one in seven Australians over the age of 50.

Ellex Medical Lasers (ASX:ELX) shares were trading unchanged at $0.305 as of around 1.30 pm on Tuesday.