Nonprofit Sees Need in Developing Gene Therapies for Inherited Eye Disesases

For people with inherited retinal diseases, gene therapies carry the promise of potentially preventing and even curing blindness. But the small patient populations for with people these conditions make it difficult to attract commercial interests. Odylia Therapeutics, a recently unveiled nonprofit gene therapy developer, is hoping to bridge the gap between academic researchers and drug developers by conducting preclinical and early-stage clinical development on gene therapies for inherited eye diseases. We spoke to Scott Dorfman, co-founder and CEO of Odylia, about what drove the creation of the company, how it works as a nonprofit, and whether it may make sense to extend the model to carry these therapies to patients.