(College Station)—Regent Technology has awarded George C.Y. Chiou of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine $1.7 million to support MacuClear, a company Chiou founded last year.
MacuClear conducts research into therapeutic drugs for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Chiou, a professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics, worked with the A&M System Office of Technology Commercialization to create MacuClear in August 2006.
The funds will finance formulation of his AMD eye drops, which will be tested and submitted as an Individual New Drug Application to the Food and Drug Administration. Once the drugs pass FDA regulations, MacuClear can proceed with clinical trials.
AMD is the most common cause of vision loss in people over age 65. Chiou’s eye drops will increase choroidal blood flow in the eye, effectively preventing and reversing damage associated with AMD progression.
“Our next step is to find a partner who can help us bring our product to the market,” Chiou said. “This is a very expensive process, so we’ll be working with the pharmaceutical industry to make it happen.”
Chiou also is founding editor of the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics and director of the Institute of Ocular Pharmacology. 