ALPHARETTA, Ga.—Clearside Biomedical, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSD), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing treatments that restore and preserve vision for people with serious eye diseases, has reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. License and other revenue for the first quarter of 2024 was $230,000, compared with $4,000 for the first quarter of 2023, according to the company. Net loss for the first quarter of 2024 was $11.8 million compared with a net loss of $9.3 million for the first quarter of 2023.

“As we near the midpoint of 2024, I am excited to highlight key aspects of our program and the steps we have taken to position Clearside for an important year,” said George Lasezkay, Pharm.D., J.D., Clearside’s president and chief executive officer. “Our lead clinical program, CLS-AX (axitinib injectable suspension), is focused on the multi-billion-dollar market for wet AMD. Our target profile for CLS-AX is to maintain visual acuity without the need for retreatment for potentially up to six months.

"The data readout from our phase 2b Odyssey clinical trial remains on track for the end of the third quarter of this year. Importantly, Odyssey is a 36-week study designed to re-dose patients with CLS-AX at six months, or earlier if needed. This will provide valuable data in a chronic disease for patients treated with more than one dose of CLS-AX as we begin planning our CLS-AX phase 3 clinical development program.”

Dr. Lasezkay continued, “We have an outstanding team at Clearside that has been strategically expanded over the past several months. We added Dr. Victor Chong, a well-respected, board-certified retinal specialist, as our chief medical officer. Victor’s extensive major pharmaceutical company experience, most recently at Johnson & Johnson, is extremely valuable as he spearheads our product development activities led by the upcoming Odyssey data analysis and the planning for our phase 3 program.

"In addition, we appointed Tony Gibney, a seasoned biotechnology executive, to our board of directors. Tony has broad expertise in business strategy, collaborations, finance and M&A, including recent and relevant ophthalmology experience at Iveric Bio. We look forward to their contributions as we advance our pipeline and continue our efforts to increase the adoption of suprachoroidal delivery,” Dr. Lasezkay said.

Research and development expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $5.6 million, compared to $4.5 million for the first quarter of 2023, the company reported. The increase was primarily due to Odyssey clinical trial expenses. The company also reported that general and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $2.8 million, compared with $3.2 million for the first quarter of 2023.

As of March 31, 2024, Clearside’s cash and cash equivalents totaled $35.4 million, according to the announcement. The company said it believes it will have sufficient resources to fund its planned operations into the third quarter of 2025.