NightstaRx (Nightstar), a fresh spin-out from the University of Oxford, has launched with £12m ($20m) in backing from Syncona, a subsidiary of charity investor the Wellcome Trust.
The company is focused on the development and commercialisation of therapies for degenerative conditions which affect vision. The first retinal dystrophy Nightstar will focus on is a gene therapy for choroideremia, an inherited form of blindness.
The treatment uses a modified virus, AAV.REP1, to correct genetic information of cells in the eye’s retina. In a recent clinical trial published in medical journal The Lancet, the first six patients treated showed improvement in their vision in dim light, with two of the six able to read more lines on the eye chart. Choroideremia affects 1 in 50,000 people, and culminates in blindness in late adulthood. Currently, there is no effective treatment for the condition.
As part of the deal, Chris Hollowood, partner at Syncona,…
