OKYO Pharma Ltd

OKYO Pharma Ltd is a clinical-stage ophthalmology company that develops distinct treatments for corneal and anterior segment diseases. The company aims to address significant unmet medical needs in these areas through innovative science, targeted therapeutic approaches, and a structured clinical and regulatory development strategy. OKYO Pharma Ltd utilizes its expertise in ophthalmology across research, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and commercialization to advance a pipeline of products designed to improve outcomes for patients with debilitating ocular diseases affecting vision, ocular comfort, and quality of life. The company's primary program, urcosimod, is being developed as a potential first-in-class treatment for neuropathic corneal pain, a severe condition with no currently FDA-approved therapies. OKYO Pharma Ltd's research program focuses on a novel G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR), which is believed to be crucial in the pathology of specific ocular eye diseases with high unmet medical needs. Their therapeutic approach targets a specific GPCR receptor called CMKLR1 (or ChemR23), which is involved in the inflammatory and pain modulation pathways driving these conditions. The lead clinical product candidate, urcosimod (formerly OK-101), is a lipidated chemerin peptide designed to specifically bind to ChemR23 and block its role in producing ocular pain and inflammation. On February 21, 2018, OKYO Pharma Ltd obtained a license from On Target Therapeutics (OTT) for patents owned or controlled by OTT, and a sub-license from OTT for certain patents licensed by OTT from Tufts Medical Center (TMC). These licenses, assigned from Biovitas Limited, a related party, support the company's ophthalmic disease drug programs and provide the right to exploit the intellectual property covering urcosimod (formerly OK-101), which includes compositions-of-matter and methodologies for treating ocular pain and inflammation using lipid-linked chemerin analogues like urcosimod.