Acucela Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing therapies for blinding eye diseases. Neurodegenerative retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), Stargardt disease, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity significantly affect quality of life of patients, and there is a drastic lack of therapies available.

Acucela is employing a novel approach to treat AMD by developing small molecules which modulate the visual cycle. The company has filed an investigational new drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Pending clearance by the FDA, Acucela expects to commence a Phase I clinical trial of a non-retinoid visual cycle modulator for dry AMD later this quarter.

Acucela Inc. has two divisions:

The Drug Discovery and Development Division serves to discover and develop drug compounds to treat retinal eye diseases. Acucela expects to commence a Phase I clinical trial of the non-retinoid visual cycle modulator for dry AMD later this quarter.

The OcuScreen^TM Division provides services to pharmaceutical companies and other customers, using Acucela's proprietary technologies to generate data on custom drug compounds. Three papers have been published on OcuScreen^TM assays (see the "news" section for more details).