Nanoscope Therapeutics Strengthens Clinical and Regulatory Expertise With Appointment of Samuel Barone, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer

• Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officer, practicing ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon to lead Nanoscope's broad clinical pipeline of optogenetic gene therapies

DALLAS, Sept. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanoscope Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing gene therapies for inherited retinal diseases, announced today the appointment of Samuel Barone, M.D., an accomplished leader in the pharmaceutical space and former FDA official, as Chief Medical Officer.

"We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Barone to the Nanoscope team. The regulatory expertise garnered during his tenure at the FDA will be instrumental as we continue to advance our pipeline through late-stage clinical development and navigate the regulatory process," said Sulagna Bhattacharya, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nanoscope. "Dr. Barone will support our mission to bring sight-restoring therapies to patients with inherited retinal diseases in an expeditious manner." 

"Nanoscope has the potential to impact the treatment landscape with its gene-agnostic, sight-restoring optogenetic therapies and bring these transformative therapeutic options to patients with severe vision loss due to inherited retinal diseases, for which there are no restorative therapies available," said Dr. Barone. "I look forward to taking MCO-010 through approval and advancing Nanoscope's follow-on assets to the clinic."

Dr. Samuel Barone is a board-certified ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon with clinical development and regulatory experience across a range of indications in ophthalmology, dermatology, rare diseases, and cell and gene therapy. He was most recently Chief Medical Officer at Gemini Therapeutics prior to its merger with Disc Medicine, where he oversaw the development of novel therapeutics targeting the complement system to treat genetically defined age-related macular degeneration and systemic renal disease. Prior to that he was Chief Medical Officer for Veloce BioPharma, a topical therapeutics company focusing on unmet clinical needs in dermatology, ophthalmology and supportive oncology. He was also Chief Medical Officer for Avalanche Biotechnologies and then Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, for Adverum Biotechnologies. Both roles included supervision and implementation of the clinical development of AAV-based gene therapy products targeting unmet medical needs in ophthalmology and rare diseases. Early in his career, he served on active duty as a flight surgeon for the United States Air Force.

As a Senior Medical Officer at the FDA in the Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies (now the Office of Therapeutic Products), he served as a subject matter expert and developed FDA Guidance Documents. He has global experience in overseeing clinical trials in the U.S. as well as in Australia and India. He was involved with Nanoscope for the Phase 1/2a clinical trial design for MCO-010.

Dr. Barone received an M.D. from The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. He completed a residency in ophthalmology at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and a medical and surgical retina fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.

About Nanoscope Therapeutics Inc.
Nanoscope Therapeutics is developing gene-agnostic, sight-restoring optogenetic therapies for the millions of patients blinded by inherited retinal diseases, for which no cure exists. The company's lead asset, MCO-010, recently reported topline results from the RESTORE Phase 2b multicenter, randomized, double-masked, sham-controlled clinical trial in the U.S. for retinitis pigmentosa (NCT04945772). The company has also recently completed their end-of-study visit for the Phase 2 STARLIGHT trial of MCO-010 therapy in Stargardt patients (NCT05417126). MCO-010 has received FDA fast track designations and FDA orphan drug designations for both retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt. Preclinical assets include non-viral laser-delivered MCO-020 gene therapy for geographic atrophy.

Investor Contact:
Argot Partners
212-600-1902
[email protected]

SOURCE Nanoscope Therapeutics