About Us
Ikarovec is a pre-clinical phase gene therapy company. Our programmes are aimed at treating common eye diseases. Our technology allows for targeting multiple disease targets and pathways thereby improving efficacy and restoring sight and preventing blindness.
Our lead pre-clinical research programmes include innovative gene therapy treatments for:
- Geography atrophy
- Neovascular (wet-form) age-related macular degeneration
We have additional earlier stage programmes in:
- Diabetic macular edema
- Ocular hypertension, a major risk factor for developing glaucoma
What is Gene Therapy?
Gene therapy is a technique which allows DNA to be introduced into target cells in the eye through a process called gene transfer. The DNA contains information which instructs the target cells in the eye to make proteins which can then treat a particular disease.
Conventional therapies for eye diseases require repeat injections into the eye of proteins or use of daily eye drop application, whereas gene therapies have the advantage of requiring only a single eye injection on one occasion with therapeutic benefits lasting many years and decades. The gene therapies also permit information coding for several proteins to be introduced into a single product, thereby allowing multiple disease pathways to be targetted and providing overall better efficacy as compared to a drug which can work at only a single site.