▎WuXiEdited by Kant Content Team

MSD and EyeBiotech (hereinafter referred to as EyeBio) announced today that they have reached a definitive agreement under which MSD will acquire EyeBio for approximately $3 billion through a subsidiary.EyeBio’s lead candidate drug Restoret (EYE103) is a potential “first-in-class” tetravalent trispecific antibody, expected to enter pivotal Phase 2b/3 clinical trials in the second half of this year.。

EyeBio is developing a series of clinical and preclinical candidate drugs for the prevention and treatment of vision loss associated with retinal vascular leakage.Restoret is a tetravalent trispecific antibody that can simultaneously bind to the receptors LRP5 and FZD4, activating the Wnt signaling pathway.The Wnt signaling pathway plays a crucial role in restoring and maintaining the blood-retina barrier (BRB). Preclinical studies have shown that Restoret can durably reduce retinal vascular leakage associated with diabetic macular edema (DME) and neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NVAMD).

▲Restoret can bind to different epitopes of the LRP5 receptor and FZD4 (Image source: EyeBio's official website)

The open-label Phase 1b/2a AMARONE study in treatment-naïve DME and NVAMD patients showed,Restoret after 12 weeksDMEPatients saw an average of 11.2 more letters on the eye chart.It also demonstrated good tolerability, with no drug-related adverse events or intraocular inflammation observed.

Under the terms of the agreement, MSD will acquire EyeBio for an upfront payment of $1.3 billion through its subsidiary. MSD will also pay up to $1.7 billion in potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments.

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