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ITRI and Metagone Biotech partner for glaucoma and macular degeneration drug developmentNov 09, 2022

ITRI announced that it has created Taiwan's first "ophthalmic technology platform", targeting "glaucoma and wet macular degeneration", developing the world's first "dual-target" glaucoma drops and "no intraocular injection" wet macular degeneration drops to capture the US$1.5 billion global ophthalmic market.

ITRI and Metagone Biotech have achieved three major achievements, including the first technology transfer to Cygnus Biotech Group, which was efficiently executed by the Metagone team and entered the clinical trial stage of the new drug within six months; secondly, the total amount of technology transfer exceeded NT$100 million, the highest in the history of Taiwan's corporate ophthalmology new drug technology transfer, and the actual revenue in the first year of technology transfer reached tens of millions of dollars, a new high in the biotechnology field; thirdly, the first ophthalmology-specific "drug technology platform" in Taiwan was produced. These three achievements will enhance Taiwan's ophthalmic drug development capacity and build a complete supply chain, with products to be marketed from as early as 2025, benefiting more than 350,000 patients, and further capturing 5% of the global ophthalmic drug market, reaching a scale of approximately US$1.5 billion and making Taiwan a base for ophthalmic drug innovation.

According to the Health Insurance Administration, the number of patients with glaucoma and macular degeneration is more than 350,000 every year and is growing year by year.

ITRI has developed drug technology platforms targeting ophthalmology, oncology, central nervous system and other fields, including the first "ophthalmic drug technology platform" in Taiwan, which has developed a dual-target ophthalmic drug for glaucoma that is nearly three times more effective than international manufacturers and more suitable for people with high eye pressure, and an eye drop for wet macular degeneration that can be treated at home without eye injections.

ITRI, together with Metagone Biotech, will rapidly enter clinical trials within half a year, aiming to launch the product in 2025 and 2026 respectively, and will expand the function of industrial clustering to create a complete upstream, midstream and downstream industrial chain, forming an ophthalmic drug industry cluster.

The Taiwan industry is capable of mass production of raw materials and preparations, but when it comes to development, it faces the challenge of having the drug manufacturing process or patents in the hands of major international manufacturers.

This is the first time in the history of ITRI that the development and transfer of drug technology and patents for a specific eye disease have been completed at the same time.

ITRI has set up a "Drug Technology Platform" to provide one-stop services from drug synthesis, formulation design, efficacy, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, drug trial and mass production, as well as a wide range of options for new target small molecules and drug delivery technologies to accelerate commercialisation.

President of Metagone, Mr. Chen Kai-cheung (陳啟祥), said that Metagone has taken over the two patented technologies and derivative product ideas for glaucoma and wet macular degeneration eye drops from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and completed the preparation and submission of IND data for both cases within just six months. The human clinical phase II trial for the wet macular degeneration drops will commence in the fourth quarter of this year and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year.