Phase 1 Study of JNJ-81201887 Gene Therapy in Geographic Atrophy Secondary to Age-Related Macular Degeneration

To evaluate the safety and tolerability of a single intravitreal injection of JNJ-81201887 (JNJ-1887) in patients with geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Phase 1, open-label, single-center, first-in-human clinical study.

Adult patients (≥50 years of age) with GA secondary to AMD in the study-treated eye (treated eye) with Snellen best-corrected visual acuity of 20/200 or worse in the treated eye (20/80 or worse after the first 3 patients), a total GA lesion size between 5 and 20 mm² (2-8 disc area), and best-corrected visual acuity of 20/800 or better in fellow, nontreated eye were included.

Patients (n = 17) were enrolled sequentially into low-dose (3.56 × 10¹⁰ viral genome/eye; n = 3), intermediate-dose (1.07 × 10¹¹ viral genome/eye; n = 3), and high-dose (3.56 × 10¹¹ viral genome/eye; n = 11) cohorts without steroid prophylaxis and assessed for safety and tolerability over 24 months.

Safety and tolerability outcomes included assessment of ocular and nonocular treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs) over 24 months. Secondary outcomes included GA lesion size and growth rate.

Baseline patient characteristics were consistent with the disease under study, and all enrolled patients demonstrated foveal center-involved GA. JNJ-81201887 was well-tolerated across all cohorts, with no dose-limiting AEs. No serious or systemic AEs related to study intervention occurred. Overall, 5 of 17 patients (29%) experienced 5 events of mild ocular inflammation related to study treatment; examination findings in all resolved, and AEs resolved in 4 of 5 patients after topical steroids or observation. One unresolved vitritis event, managed with observation, occurred in a patient with an unrelated fatal AE. No endophthalmitis or new-onset choroidal neovascularization was reported. Geographic atrophy lesion growth rate was similar among all cohorts over 24 months. For treated eyes in the high-dose cohort, GA lesion growth rate showed continued decline through 24 months, with a reduction in mean square root lesion growth from 0.211 mm at months 0 through 6 to 0.056 mm at months 18 through 24.

All 3 studied doses of JNJ-1887 showed a manageable safety profile through 24 months of follow-up. Further investigation of JNJ-1887 for the treatment of GA is warranted.

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.