A Vision for Fewer Eye Injections.
Introducing TERC™
An innovative Tunable Extended-Release Capsule technology for sustained delivery of therapeutics.
Patients are losing sight unnecessarily.
The global aging population is witnessing an alarming rise in the number of cases of macular degeneration, currently affecting the lives of 200M people worldwide.1 Real-world patient outcomes aren’t matching the results seen in clinical trials, due to the challenges of maintaining frequent (up to monthly) injection treatments.
Seeing the way to fewer injections.
Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (wAMD) is a leading cause of blindness in the developed world.
The primary treatment calls for injections of anti-VEGF to block the growth of new blood vessels in the retina that leads to severe vision loss.
Millions of people worldwide receive injections in each eye 7-12 times per year.
The 2021 Global Trends in Retina survey found that longer-lasting therapy is the greatest unmet need in wet AMD therapeutics.2
Vitranu’s patent pending TERC™ technology aims to meet this need by reducing eye injections to 2 per year or fewer.
TERC™ is the Tunable Extended-Release Capsule technology that enables the sustained delivery of therapeutics in vivo.
Tunable
Elution can be finely tuned by varying porosity of capsule wall.
Extended-Release
9-month release of active bevacizumab demonstrated in vitro.3
Capsule
Provides protective environment for biologic therapeutics.
TERC is manufactured with biodegradable polymers using novel electrospinning technology to produce a double-walled, tunable capsule that can be filled with unaltered biologic or small molecule therapeutics.
By modifying the electrospinning process parameters, capsules can be made with defined pore sizes and "tuned" to deliver the payload with the desired drug elution profile. This patented and unique approach provides a platform technology to fulfill the unmet need of sustained, controllable ophthalmic drug delivery.”
Magnified views
Scale of TERC™ prototype
Payload filled into central lumen
Pore size and bi-layer design allow control of release kinetics
Patents and technology license agreement
Vitranu’s technology is being developed under license from The Ohio State Innovation Foundation (OSIF).
Patent rights
US Patent Application PCT/US2020/017523 entitled “Drug Delivery Compositions for Ocular Administration of Therapeutics and Methods of Use Thereof” (Feb 10, 2020)
1. Wong et al, Global prevalence of age-related macular degeneration and disease burden projection for 2020 and 2040: a systematic review and meta-analysis, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2014, Pages e106-e116.
2. Hahn P, Eliott D, eds. 2021 Global Trends in Retina Survey: 14 Global Trends in Retina Chicago, IL. American Society of Retina Specialists; 2021.
3. Ref: Jiang et al. Journal of Controlled Release 320 (2020) 442–456
*The statements on this website have not be evaluated by the FDA and the device is not currently available for purchase or use in the United States.