Lions Eye Institute is a not-for-profit organisation. In 2018, LEI received ~$2m in donations and bequests and $6.5m in grants, as well as deriving revenue from conducting clinical trials. Over the course of the year, it was involved in more than 40 active clinical trials and published 91 research papers.
To give some idea about LEI operations, the following excerpts are from their 2018 Annual Report.
After more than 20 years of painstaking research and development, a new surgical intervention for glaucoma, developed at the LEI by Professors Dao-Yi Yu and Bill Morgan and the Physiology and Pharmacology research group and their international collaborators, became commercially available for implantation in Australian patients. The Xen® Gel Stent is a microfistula implant that reduces intraocular pressure in the eye. Raised intraocular pressure is the biggest risk factor for glaucoma. Before it was introduced in Australia in March 2018, the stent was approved for use in the United States, Europe and other countries….
…there have been 75,000 XEN procedures performed worldwide in the last five years. The fact that Allergan wants us to be a worldwide centre of surgical excellence for Xen is testament to our overall clinical surgical skills and infrastructure.
The Ocular Tissue Engineering group focused on generating patient derived stem cells for future testing of novel therapies to treat inherited retinal diseases. This group continues to collaborate widely across Australia with the country’s best experts in novel medicine manufacturing, computer science, engineering, epidemiology and clinical trials to bring the novel treatments and technology from the laboratory bench to the patient in clinic. …
Several trials in geographic atrophy, led by Dr Chen, were also completed in 2018. Two of the three drugs tested showed promising results, which will be announced at international conferences in 2019. Encouraging results from the LEAD trial (nanosecond laser) for drusen treatment was announced in 2018 with further analysis and publications planned for 2019. New clinical trials are due to commence in 2019, including therapies for geographic atrophy and newer generation of injections medicine for wet macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
Retinal Genomics pioneered a study of the world’s first and only mouse model of a rare retinal disease called Cone dystrophy with supernormal rod response (CDSRR), paving the way for new treatment pathways. The model closely matches what is seen in humans with CDSRR, allowing the researchers to validate treatment strategies, better understand the physiology of vision and the pathophysiology of this disorder. In collaboration with American research laboratories, the Retinal Genomics research group is also developing a gene therapy for a type of Usher syndrome.
Our Clinical Trials team was extremely busy with more than 40 active trials – giving patients with specific eye disorders, or previously untreatable eye conditions, access to new therapies well before they are available to the general public. …
Clinic efficiency is turning, making in excess of $1 million dollars more for research and administration in the 12 month period to March 2019 compared with the previous 12 months.
Our clinical services are internationally recognised and this is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that Allergan, the large pharmaceutical and device manufacturer has asked us to be one of only two surgical excellence training centres in the world for the Xen® Gel Stent.
The LEI’s Clinical Trials team is one of the largest ophthalmological research centres in the world…
One outcome of our collaborative research has been the successful design of a glaucoma drainage device specifically built for Indonesian patients to be manufactured in Indonesia at one tenth of the cost of such current devices. This device should be released nationally across Indonesia in mid-2019. Already some 250 devices have been inserted into patients with severe forms of glaucoma in Indonesia…
Clinical Services Eye consultations including injections reached a new high of 60,000 patient visits for the year, with surgeries and minor procedures performed by the Institute’s clinicians also approaching a new peak of 7900.
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