GenVec, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for cancer, heart disease, vision loss, and vaccines for infectious diseases, has begun the second part of the ongoing Phase I clinical trial of its pigment epithelium-derived factor (AdPEDF) drug candidate for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). A total of 20 patients with less advanced AMD will be enrolled at multiple centres in the US, including the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Results of the first part of the study were reported at the Subspecialty Retina Day symposium of the first joint session of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the European Ophthalmology Society in New Orleans on October 22, 2004. In this study, which was conducted in patients with very advanced wet AMD, AdPEDF was generally well tolerated at all dose levels tested and encouraging effects on retinal appearance were seen in some patients, the official release says.

Lisa L. Wei, GenVec's director of preclinical sciences, stated, "In patients with wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels form in the area of the retina, which is responsible for seeing fine detail. Leakage from these abnormal vessels can damage the retina and cause vision loss. Since PEDF regulates blood vessel growth in the eye and protects the cells of the retina from damage, we are hopeful that AdPEDF can protect the vision of patients with wet AMD more effectively than treatments which primarily work by preventing abnormal blood vessel growth."