Opus Genetics completes dosing in higher-dose retinal gene therapy cohort

Opus Genetics completed dosing in all 11 participants in Cohort 2 of its Phase 1/2 BIRD-1 trial of OPGx-BEST1, an investigational gene therapy for BEST1-related inherited retinal diseases. The cohort received three times the dose used in Cohort 1, and the company expects three-month results in the first quarter of 2027; a potential pivotal Phase 3 trial could begin dosing in the second half of 2027. Earlier results from five lower-dose participants showed improvements in at least one visual-function measure for each, with no serious adverse events reported, but the small, open-label cohort does not establish efficacy or predict the higher dose’s performance. North Carolina life sciences news also included Precision BioSciences’ planned $125 million offering and the opening of a Durham laboratory for tumor-profiling samples.