Verseon presented their oral drug candidates for diabetic macular edema (DME) at this week’s 2019 BIO International Convention in Philadelphia. These drug candidates could become the first real alternative to eye injections, the current standard of care for millions of diabetics at risk of vision loss. DME, a leading cause of adult blindness, is a complication of diabetes with over 20 million diagnosed patients worldwide. Macular edema occurs when fluid leaks from damaged blood vessels and accumulates in the central region of the retina, a process caused by chronically high blood sugar. It is estimated that about one third of long-term diabetic patients are at risk of developing DME, a group that is expected to grow significantly as the global diabetic population escalates from roughly 425 million to over 600 million over the next 25 years. The current standard of care for DME are recurring injections into the eye associated with discomfort, infection, and inflammation, and that are only effective in about half of patients. Given the risk profile and invasiveness of administration, these drugs are not appropriate for preventative treatment in chronic diabetics at risk. There is a large unmet need for better medications for treating, and ideally preventing, DME. Verseon’s oral DME program is aimed at meeting this need. Verseon’s drug candidates target plasma kallikrein, a central mediator of the disease that is not covered by current drugs. In preclinical studies, these compounds have demonstrated excellent oral bioavailability and successfully inhibited both retinal thickening and retinal vascular leakage, two hallmarks of DME. This combination makes them promising candidates for a new generation of oral DME drugs that could potentially open up a $96 billion annual global market for treatment and prophylaxis.