How Verana Health and Nanoscope Therapeutics Are Advancing Retinitis Pigmentosa Research Through Data-Driven Collaboration

The combined power of real-world data (RWD) and artificial intelligence (AI) is revealing valuable insights into rare and complex diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which is a group of inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) that progressively lead to blindness. Currently, there is no cure for RP, but AI-driven insights are helping life sciences companies explore promising gene therapies that could slow the progression of IRDs and potentially restore vision.

With a strong commitment to accelerating research and advancing treatments for IRDs, both Verana Health and Nanoscope Therapeutics announced a collaboration in which Nanoscope Therapeutics will utilize Verana Health’s Qdata^® Retinitis Pigmentosa module to analyze more than 76,000 de-identified patients with a median of 3.8 years of follow-up data. The research-ready dataset offers crucial insights into the progression of RP, patient demographics, and treatment outcomes, which are derived from unstructured and semi-structured fields of clinician notes within electronic health records (EHRs). 

Verana Health has access to an ocean of RWD through its exclusive partnership with the American Academy of Ophthalmology IRIS^® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight), the world’s largest specialty society clinical data registry. The IRIS Registry consists of ophthalmology data on 80 million de-identified patients from 15,000 contributing clinicians. By ingesting and curating IRIS Registry data and applying secure and advanced AI techniques, such as machine learning and natural language processing, Verana Health can identify key variables (e.g., visual acuity and central subfield thickness) that can more accurately classify the RP patient population beyond ICD and SNOMED codes.  

Such robust data and comprehensive insights will help Nanoscope Therapeutics support the launch and commercialization of its MCO-010, an innovative optogenetic gene therapy that’s designed to restore vision and potentially slow neurodegeneration. The therapy has received FDA Fast Track designation and FDA orphan drug designation for RP.

Qdata Retinitis Pigmentosa is essential for accurately describing this patient population to optimize and diversify clinical trials, understand disease progression, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

By combining Nanoscope Therapeutics’ biotech expertise and Verana Health’s exclusive data-driven insights, we are taking significant steps toward delivering to market therapies that can improve the quality of care and quality of life for patients affected by vision-threatening diseases.​

As we continue to advance our understanding of retinitis pigmentosa through real-world data, we remain dedicated to fostering collaborations that accelerate the discovery and delivery of groundbreaking treatments, and bringing hope for renewed eyesight to patients blinded by retinal degenerative diseases.