Looking Forward to a Landmark Year: Making Our DR:EAM a Reality in 2024

Intro

Although the biopharma industry has faced its share of market challenges, 2023 saw companies of all sizes and stages making progress in developing therapies to address unmet patient needs. As we reach the end of this year, the OcuTerra team wants to take time to reflect on our work and milestones reached in 2023.

Making Our DR:EAM a Reality

2023 set in motion “the year of our DR:EAM.” Although we technically kicked off the Phase 2 Diabetic Retinopathy: Early Active Management (DR:EAM) clinical trial in 2022, the past year brought tremendous momentum for the clinical development of OTT166, OcuTerra’s novel small molecule integrin inhibitor designed to be administered via eye drop for earlier, non-invasive active treatment.

In 2023, we achieved full enrollment for the DR:EAM study – in fact, we successfully recruited more patients than originally forecast! This is a testament to the strong relationship OcuTerra maintains with all of our clinical trial sites and investigators. Their commitment to supporting our research and creating an improved treatment landscape for patients with DR has been a driver of our success.

We are pleased to share that we will see our last patient, last visit in this clinical trial before the end of 2023. Once the final dose of OTT166 is administered in this study, we will begin reviewing data and examining how our lead asset may improve patients’ scores on the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS). We want to thank all the patients who volunteered for the DR:EAM clinical trial – their participation has been essential in advancing what could be the first eye drop therapeutic for DR. Thank you for believing in our treatment and helping advance science!

Staying Small but Mighty

This year, one of the most important considerations for OcuTerra was efficient use of capital – both in strategically allocating existing funds and planning for our next fundraising round. We knew that in 2023 it would be critical to hire our first Chief Financial Officer, one who would share our vision for new therapies that can potentially impact the lives of millions of patients.

Bill Steinkrauss fit the bill and has been a seamless addition since joining OcuTerra in June. Bill has substantial experience in financial roles at several biopharma companies, including serving as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at a publicly traded company. With Bill on our leadership team, OcuTerra has engaged in extensive interactions with many potential investors and built a dynamic financial strategy that will help us reach our goal of bringing non-invasive therapeutic options to patients living with sight-threatening conditions like DR.

In addition, our President and Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Brady led OcuTerra to numerous critical milestones with focus and tenacity. The OcuTerra team is continually motivated by Kerrie’s tireless work to connect with clinicians, partners, investors, and patients to shepherd OTT166 through the approval process. But don’t just take it from us!

Kerrie’s inspiring leadership earned her recognition in the 2023 PharmaVoice 100, a list of the most influential leaders in the life sciences. Highlighted as one of the leading entrepreneurs in biotech, Kerrie was honored for her business acumen, her efforts to develop important new therapies and her enthusiasm for supporting the next generation of biopharma industry leaders.

Making Connections and Sharing Our Story

This year, we had the pleasure of meeting countless life science professionals across the U.S. and throughout the world. In 2023, the OcuTerra team, including Kerrie and our Chief Medical Officer David Tanzer, appeared at more than 25 conferences and industry events, participating in 20 presentations and panel discussions highlighting the future of ophthalmology and how our OTT166 program could transform the way we treat diabetic eye disease.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with so many industry leaders who share our commitment to improving the standard of care, and throughout the year we shared the substantial progress made in our OTT166 program and the DR:EAM clinical trial. We hope that we’ll have even more opportunities to present updates on OTT166 in 2024, when we can share full data from the DR:EAM study.

Cheers to 2024!

At OcuTerra, we feel incredibly lucky to work with a devoted team, empowering each other to deliver the best possible opportunities for patients living with sight-threatening ophthalmic conditions like DR. The successes of this past year would not have been possible without our entire staff, as well as those who have supported our work clinically, financially, or otherwise. Thank you for reading our monthly OcuTerra Insights blog series (another exciting venture that we started in 2023!) and we hope you will continue to follow our journey in 2024. Here’s to sharing what we hope will be very exciting milestones in 2024!