MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 30, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Opthea Limited (NASDAQ:OPT; ASX:OPT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies to treat highly prevalent and progressive retinal diseases, announced today that Dr. Megan Baldwin, the Company’s Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, will present at Eyecelerator which is part of AAO 2023 being held in San Francisco, CA on November 3^rd to 6^th, 2023.

Dr. Baldwin will present on Thursday, November 2^nd at 1:36pm PST as part of Eyecelerator’s “Retina Showcase” highlighting companies advancing next generation therapeutics for retina diseases. Eyecelerator is a partnership between the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). Its mission is to connect entrepreneurs, investors, companies, and physicians to advance ophthalmic innovation through live conferences, virtual programming, and a next-generation networking platform.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology is the world’s largest association of eye physicians and surgeons. A global community of 32,000 medical doctors, it protects sight and empowers lives by setting the standards for ophthalmic education and advocating for patients and the public. The Academy innovates to advance the profession and to ensure the delivery of the highest-quality eye care. For more information, visit aao.org.

About Opthea Limited

Opthea (ASX:OPT; Nasdaq:OPT) is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies to address the unmet need in the treatment of highly prevalent and progressive retinal diseases, including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Opthea’s lead product candidate OPT-302 is in pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials and being developed for use in combination with anti-VEGF-A monotherapies to achieve broader inhibition of the VEGF family, with the goal of improving overall efficacy and demonstrating superior vision gains over that which can be achieved by inhibiting VEGF-A alone.

Inherent risks of Investment in Biotechnology Companies

There are a number of inherent risks associated with the development of pharmaceutical products to a marketable stage. The lengthy clinical trial process is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of a drug prior to commercialization and a significant proportion of drugs fail one or both of these criteria. Other risks include uncertainty of patent protection and proprietary rights, whether patent applications and issued patents will offer adequate protection to enable product development, the obtaining of necessary drug regulatory authority approvals and difficulties caused by the rapid advancements in technology. Companies such as Opthea are dependent on the success of their research and development projects and on the ability to attract funding to support these activities. Investment in research and development projects cannot be assessed on the same fundamentals as trading and manufacturing enterprises. Therefore, investment in companies specializing in drug development must be regarded as highly speculative. Opthea strongly recommends that professional investment advice be sought prior to such investments.