Primary Focus: Blindness and Regeneration

Helping to free patients from the fear of vision loss and offer the hope of recovery and restored sight

A blue eyeball illustrates how Astellas is helping to free patients from the fear of vision loss and offer the hope of recovery and lost sight.
A blue eyeball illustrates how Astellas is helping to free patients from the fear of vision loss and offer the hope of recovery and lost sight.

Vision loss caused by diseases of the eye affects more than 160 million people globally* and can have a devastating long-term impact on quality of life. Many of these diseases have few, or no, effective treatment options.

Our approach

By taking advantage of next-generation modalities represented by cell therapy and gene therapy for patients with back of the eye diseases at high risk of blindness, we will provide new treatment options to replace, preserve and restore the function of cells critical for vision.


We are working on integrating cell science and genetic science to develop the cell therapies of the future. We work to apply the latest technologies to the development of allogeneic cell therapies which allows us to develop “off-the-shelf” cell therapies that can be used in any patient.


Astellas has the following capabilities with the Blindness and Regeneration space:

 

  • Creation and manufacturing of high-quality allogeneic Pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived differentiated cells and their development
  • Clinically applicable Universal Donor Cell technology for rejection-free cell transplantation (Learn more about Universal Donor Cell technology on the site for Universal Cells, An Astellas Company)
  • Safe gene-editing technology for the creation of the next generation cell therapy
  • Design, manufacturing and development of AAV-based gene therapy
  • Preclinical evaluation of cell and gene therapy candidates in the area of ophthalmology

Flagship program and pipeline

Our Flagship program under Blindness and Regeneration is ASP7317 – a human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium cell therapy for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration. It is the first ophthalmic allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-based therapy to enter the clinic, conducted by Astellas’ Biopharma Ophthalmology Development team.


ASP7317 is being developed at the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AIRM), located in Westborough, Massachusetts, USA. AIRM is a 262,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that allows us to combine both our research and manufacturing capabilities in the same complex, giving us the means to develop new treatments while scaling manufacturing for future commercialization needs.


Please view our pipeline for Blindness and Regeneration below. You can also access the full Astellas pipeline page here.

A table provides details on Astellas’ flagship program and pipeline.

Partnering with Astellas

Astellas continuously pursues innovative opportunities and next-generation modalities/technologies to deliver unique VALUE for patients. We prefer a regenerative approach to achieve function recovery of organs.


Assets and capabilities of interest for partnership:

  • Cell therapy, gene therapy, and new modalities/technologies in the field of ophthalmology and beyond (preclinical and clinical)
  • Drug candidates aiming at the regeneration of target organ in the field of ophthalmology and beyond (preclinical and clinical)
  • Cell therapy assets suitable for Universal Donor Cell technology
  • Technology to enable less invasive and efficient delivery of drugs into the eye
  • Technology to improve Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) of cell and gene therapy
  • Safer and efficient AAV serotypes for subretinal and intravitreous injection 

 

To learn more about how to collaborate with Astellas, please visit our Partnering page.

Talent

Astellas strives to match the best science and the best talent in order to deliver on our mission to turn innovative science into VALUE for patients. We encourage you to visit our Careers page to learn how you can join our work to turn innovative science into VALUE for patients.

*Data from the WHO Blindness and Visual Impairment fact sheet. Version 8 Oct 2020

Data from the Foundation Fighting Blindness 2019 Annual Report