>…[OXGN] topical administration does not seem sufficient as first line treatment but their idea of a single intravitreal injection followed by maintenance therapy seems to me a cleaver compromise for minimizing the potential side-effects.<
I think periodic intravitreal boosters will probably be needed even if daily eye drops are used for maintenance; however, the interval between injections may be able to be lengthened to, say, 6-8 months, which would be a huge competitive advantage relative to a monthly-injection regimen.
When ALNY and MRK dropped their joint program to pursue an AMD drug using RNAi, the stated reason was that Lucentis was too strong a drug to compete against. The decision by ALNY and MRK came shortly after the release of the convincing phase-3 Lucentis data, so this rationale for dropping the program rang true.
However, yesterday I found this post on the NSTK ymb:
http://tinyurl.com/kuj9q >> “I note ALNY has not done well thus far with delivery. Merck...dropped their Macular Degeneration JV last year when ALNY was unable to get their med across the single barrier of one cell membrane. I believe some patients suffered some injuries.” <<
This brings up two questions:
1. Can you comment on the accuracy of the above statement?
2. Assuming for the sake of discussion that the above is true, why would MRK and ALNY have run into such severe problems when Sirna and Allergan have experienced no such problems with Sirna-027?
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