Sight, returning in the dark: a gene therapy just passed a test no eye treatment had passed before

For men with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, vision usually fades from childhood until legal blindness arrives by about age 45 — and there has never been an approved treatment. In the pivotal VISTA trial, presented in New Orleans by Cincinnati Eye Institute professor Robert Sisk, 85 men received Beacon Therapeutics' gene therapy laru-zova: after 12 months, 31% of the high-dose group and 24.1% of the low-dose group had gained at least 15 letters of low-light vision — the ability to see in dim light — compared with none in the untreated group, with a favourable safety profile. The therapy is still investigational, not yet approved, and Beacon plans to begin a rolling application to US regulators later this year.