EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYPT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Yi Chen from H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open.

Yi Chen: Thank you for taking my question. Can you provide us with your view on gene therapy being developed for wet AMD? Whether they could be a big competitor for six months and nine months sustained therapy for wet AMD and whether their application could be limited to most severe patients? Thank you.

Jay Duker: Thanks, Yi. So gene therapy is certainly an exciting advance in the retina field, and as a replacement for a faulty gene, it’s obviously been approved in that indication and really has been an incredible benefit to patients. Using it as a drug delivery also shows promise, especially for chronic diseases. The issues around wet AMD really has to do with, first of all, the — but appears to be a relatively narrow therapeutic window between efficacy and safety that the gene therapies need to really thread and secondly, the question about alternatives. Gene therapy is presumably going to be more expensive than current therapies or other therapies in development. And therefore, how this one either an individual retina specialist or payers or society in general, justify the use of a more expensive type treatment, if it’s not clearly superior to what’s out there already.

So at a high level, I think all retina specialists are excited about the promise of gene therapy. But in wet AMD particular, there’s a really tight needle that needs to be threaded.

Operator: Thank you. And I’m showing no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This does conclude your program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Jay Duker: Everyone, thank you.