pSivida implant provides sustained antibody release

pSivida (ASX:PVA) has presented preclinical data demonstrating the feasibility of using its Tethadur implant to provide sustained release doses of antibodies such as Avastin.

The company delivered a poster presentation detailing the preclinical research at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

The research demonstrates that long-term sustained release of antibodies such as Avastin (bevacizumab) is achievable with Tethadur, and that the release of the antibodies is controllable by adjusting the pore size and surface area of the ocular implant.

“The implications of the ability to control the duration of sustained delivery of antibodies through pore size are significant,” pSivida CEO Dr Paul Ashton commented.

“By varying pore size, we believe the release rate of antibodies loaded into Tethadur can be controlled, which could permit sustained delivery of antibodies that currently must be delivered as frequent injections.”

He noted that Avastin and the two current top-selling Veg-F ophthalmic drugs must be injected as frequently as once per month.

Tethadur is developed using pSivida's BioSilicon technology, a fully erodible structure of nanoporous silicon designed to provide sustained delivery of large biologic molecules.

pSivida (ASX:PVA) shares were trading unchanged at $4.00 as of around 12 pm on Wednesday.