Start-Up Previews, July-August 2013

25 Jul 2013

This Month's Profile Groups: Ocular Gene Therapy Sees The Light, features profiles of Avalanche Biotechnologies, Eyevensys, GenSight Biologics, and Hemera Biosciences; Smart Orthopedic Implants, feature profiles of OrthoData and Ortho-tag. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Colibri Heart Valve, Complix, Helmedix, Mapi Pharma, Mendor, Oligomerix, QuantuMDx, Silicon BioDevices, and Vigilant Biosciences.

Recent scientific advances and some initial biotech successes have spurred investors to look again at gene therapy, an approach once considered all but dead. Gene therapies seem particularly apt for ocular diseases, but the pathway to approval remains largely uncharted.

Anti-angiogenesis drugs have proved game changers in the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration, but to stave off AMD blindness,...