Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 193 - Patrick Mooney - CEO of SpyGlass Pharma

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Episode 193 - Patrick Mooney - CEO of SpyGlass Pharma · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:06
  Welcome to the Biohub podcast. Today we are joined by Patrick
• 0:08
  Mooney, CEO of Spyglass Farmer. Patrick started his career in
• 0:12
  banking, then joined Alcom, which began his ophthalmology
• 0:15
  journey to where he is today. Thank you for joining us.
• 0:19
  Thank you. Good morning.
• 0:20
  Love to be here and thanks for the opportunity.
• 0:22
  Yeah, absolutely. I'm so excited to talk about
• 0:24
  everything that you're doing at Spyglass.
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  As I obviously just mentioned there, you have been in
• 0:29
  ophthalmology for for a long time now, but you actually
• 0:32
  started out in banking. How did that journey happen and
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  what what made the switch into into the ophthalmology space?
• 0:39
  Yeah, great question. That's correct.
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  After college, I initially started out working for a
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  company called Deluxe Financial Services.
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  It was an outside sales position working with banks and credit
• 0:50
  unions primarily focused in on check printing services.
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  And while I enjoyed the work working with customers, there
• 0:56
  was just something missing for me.
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  It was more of a intrinsic motivator, if you will, just
• 1:02
  helping people. And after a couple of years, you
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  know, this persistent hiring manager, he kept calling and I,
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  I finally said, you know, this must be the universe reaching
• 1:12
  out. I, I really need to answer this
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  phone call. And it was this hiring manager
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  at Alcon. And Long story short, I was
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  hired on as a medical sales representative selling
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  ophthalmic pharmaceutical products responsible for
• 1:26
  glaucoma medications, anti allergy medications, anti
• 1:30
  inflammatories, things like that.
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  But it was the, I would say the chronic medication, specifically
• 1:36
  the glaucoma medications that really spoke to me.
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  I remember being fascinated with the concept of being able to
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  preserve vision for patients simply by taking these daily eye
• 1:46
  drops that lowered intraocular pressure.
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  And so to me, that whole concept was incredibly motivating.
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  A product that I was supporting, essentially helping doctors and
• 1:56
  technicians and nursing staff, ultimately helping patients
• 1:59
  preserve their vision. It, it was the intrinsic motive
• 2:03
  motivator that I was looking for.
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  And the work was really gratifying and made me want to
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  get out of bed every day and work really hard and and help
• 2:10
  support as many patients as I could.
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  Yeah, absolutely. I think that's such a big key in
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  working in this industry. We obviously all experience so
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  many highs and lows as well working in this type of
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  industry. But at the end of the day,
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  having that reason to get out of bed, you know, it's helping
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  patients at the end of the day. So you mentioned obviously that
• 2:28
  you're, you know, the glycoma part.
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  For people listening who might not know much about glaucoma,
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  what is the issue that Spyglass are trying to solve for
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  glaucoma? Yeah, glaucoma is a, is a word
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  that you know, if you don't have it, you may, you might not know
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  what it means exactly. I, I didn't know when I first
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  heard the condition. Essentially, glaucoma is, is a
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  plumbing problem inside of the eye.
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  And the eye is a closed system. It's pressurized and that
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  internal pressure has a normal range.
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  And there's a fluid that's produced inside the eye.
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  It's constantly being produced at a certain rate.
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  And much like a faucet in your home, the faucet is constantly
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  on, just a little bit if you will.
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  And over time and and patients with glaucoma, while that fluid
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  is a good thing, it's helping nourish the eye.
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  That pressure from this internal fluid that's continuing to build
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  can build up. And patients with glaucoma
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  essentially have a drainage problem.
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  So the faucet is on so to speak, but the drain gets plugged and
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  that pressure inside the eye builds up and that pressure is
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  too high. One of the main problems is that
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  it creates reduced blood flow to important tissues like the optic
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  nerve head. And so over time with that
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  reduced blood blood flow, it starves the cells in the back of
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  the eye and those cells unfortunately die, which creates
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  a permanent vision loss. So once this vision loss takes
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  place, sadly you can't get it back.
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  And the primary goal then in glaucoma management is to
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  preserve patients vision, the vision that they have left so
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  they can do their daily, you know, routine, their, their
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  careers, playing with their children, their grandkids, all
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  the things that we all like to do in our personal lives.
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  And so maintaining good vision for quality of life.
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  And the glaucoma management is really about slowing down the
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  disease progression and preserving quality of life for
• 4:19
  patients. Awesome.
• 4:21
  And this happened with the eye drops that you mentioned earlier
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  on. Now, one thing I know that we've
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  spoken about before and you know, this is something that,
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  you know, Spyglass is really kind of focused on here is the
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  patients can't necessarily or sometimes don't stay consistent
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  using those eye drops. Why do you think that's been a
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  challenge for so long for patients to to kind of stay
• 4:48
  consistent, keep it in their routine and you know, continue
• 4:50
  with them? Great question.
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  Glaucoma is, we call it the sneak thief of sight.
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  You know, most of the time you can't feel it.
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  It's slowly progressing. This progression takes years to
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  to essentially get to a point where you can diagnose it.
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  And so it's hard for patients to see that coming without routine,
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  you know, annual eye exams especially.
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  And then once they are diagnosed, they're typically
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  placed on a regimen of daily topical eye drops.
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  And these are small bottles. Most patients with glaucoma are
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  diagnosed in their 60s or or later.
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  And it's hard for them to one remember to take the drop 2 to,
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  you know, take these tiny little bottles and target their eye and
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  actually get the drops in the eye.
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  Many of these drops can also be expensive and to pay for that
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  monthly. So sadly, between targeting the
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  eye, remembering paying for it, we've known for decades that 50%
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  of patients discontinue their drop therapy within the first
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  six months of using them. It's pretty incredible.
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  They need these medicines to maintain that the vision they
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  have, but it's a challenge for them.
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  We know for decades now that daily adherence is a problem and
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  we've been wanting to solve this and doctors have wanted a long
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  term solution to say why can't we just take the burden of daily
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  adherence out of the patient's hands?
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  And can we do this with longer term drug delivery systems and
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  put the very medicines that patients need directly in the
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  eye and solve for this adherence problem?
• 6:20
  Yeah, absolutely. So if you can break down in
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  simple terms, how has spyglass technology, how is it going to
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  work? Obviously we've got a lovely
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  diagram on the screen for you, and why is it a different
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  approach to what's already on the market?
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  Great question. Sure.
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  So Spyglass, you know, we are dedicated to improving the lives
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  of patients living with chronic conditions.
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  We're starting by addressing glaucoma management and we're
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  doing this in a simple, elegant way.
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  Essentially we're using the very medicine that patients often are
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  prescribed topically with eye drops and instead we're
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  incorporating that same medicine into a long term drug delivery
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  system that's designed to elute medicine 24/7 for years.
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  Our dog delivery system is designed to be implanted at the
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  time of routine cataract surgery.
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  And so essentially, when patients need to restore vision
• 7:16
  from advancing cataracts, this is a a convenient time, so to
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  speak, because patients are already coming to the operating
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  room. And essentially the, the vision
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  that Spyglass designed and innovative is taking the very
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  medicine that patients need. And we're implementing literally
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  implanting it at the time of routine cataract surgery by
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  securing this drug delivery system to the intraocular lens
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  that's already being implanted to restore vision from
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  cataracts. And so to make a short story
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  here, we are combining a known medicine that we know works
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  well. We've been using it commercially
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  for over 2 decades. Globally.
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  We're combining it with a known surgery.
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  Cataract surgery surgeons have their specific skill sets and
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  techniques that are well perfected, and we don't want to
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  disrupt that. And we're doing this inefficient
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  way that all cataract surgeons already know how to do.
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  So in essence, there's about 1,000,000 glaucoma patients that
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  are undergoing cataract surgery each year.
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  And we are developing a system that addresses two of the
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  world's leading causes of preventable blindness in that
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  same procedure, correcting vision due to advancing
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  cataracts and delivering medicine daily from within the
• 8:29
  eye to lower intraocular pressure.
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  In our ongoing clinical trials, we've already demonstrated three
• 8:36
  years after implantation 95% of patients remain off all topical
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  intraocular pressure lowering medicine, which is fantastic and
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  their vision is on par with state-of-the-art intraocular
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  lenses on the market today that don't have the glaucoma
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  medication on board. So this is a really convergence
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  of the best lens material that we have to correct vision as
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  well as implanting the merry medicine that they need at a
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  time when patients are already in the operating.
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  Room, yeah, that is amazing as well.
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  They're not having to go out of their way.
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  It's not an additional surgery. It's something that they're
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  already going to be undergoing. So it just makes it a lot easier
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  for people to be accepting of it as well because it's something
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  that they're already getting done as obviously from from from
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  your point of view, how important was this to fit into
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  procedures doctors were already comfortable doing?
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  I think it's really important, just like we are all creatures
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  of habit, whether we have daily routines around the house or we
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  have our preferred wet method for doing anything, surgeons are
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  no different. So is the medical staff and so
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  essentially developing innovative technology if it's
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  going to be broadly adopted, we knew we had to fit inside of
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  surgeons workflow. And so changing as little as
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  possible is is a broad approach to make sure that the broad
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  surgeon adoption is something that would be welcomed in.
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  The surgeons that we talked to early on and we described their
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  procedure, their first reaction was this is great, when's this
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  coming? I'll use this tomorrow.
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  And so that really spoke to us and really encouraged us.
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  Combining known medicines with a known device and a known
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  procedure in an elegant way, we think will really speak to all
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  cataract surgeons, not just the ones that are doing glaucoma
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  surgery today, but all cataract surgeons.
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  They now can treat both conditions in the future, if
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  approved of course with Spyglass to be able to take good care of
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  patients and address 2 conditions at the time of
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  routine cataract surgery. Yeah, fantastic.
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  And obviously at the end of the day, everything that you know
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  you do is for for patients, what kind of impact do you think this
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  is going to have on day-to-day life compared to the traditional
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  treatment that they have to do just doing drops every single
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  day? We think it's going to be
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  significant. We, we know from talking to our
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  own patients that are the patients that have participated
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  in our clinical trials, for example, they've told us this is
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  really meaningful. This system allows them to, I
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  think have the confidence that their glaucoma is being managed.
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  It relieves the burden of the daily pressure to take the
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  medicine to remember to travel with those medicines if you're
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  out and about. It's a lot.
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  And at the end of the day, they want to live comfortably knowing
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  that they can see well and they can return to their daily lives.
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  And so like I said, working, interacting with family,
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  children, grandchildren, these are all important aspects of
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  life. And so being able to address
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  both problems of vision correction from cataracts and
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  giving the very medicine that patients need, taking the daily
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  burden of adherence out of their hands, we think is really
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  valuable. And from hearing from our own
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  patients, we think getting this to many, many more patients will
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  be a welcomed innovation to the market.
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  Definitely, I think as well when you know, patients are diagnosed
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  with, with, with something that they've they've never had
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  before, they've never experienced, and then to expect
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  them to completely 180 their lives and you know, administer
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  medicine every day. It's so easy to forget, even
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  though, yes, it is something that's going to be saving,
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  saving your life, it, it still can be forgotten.
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  So this just definitely will relieve the burden for so many
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  people. I can't, I can't imagine how
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  many people this will help. So I know you've already had
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  some really positive data come through and you're currently in
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  phase three clinical trials. What has that journey been like
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  so far and what are the next big milestones for you?
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  It's been an incredible journey. I've had the privilege of, of
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  being on the team and and leading our team for five years.
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  And it's been so rewarding personally to see us grow from
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  a, a tiny company of, you know, less than 10 people and now
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  approaching, you know, 80 plus. The journey has been incredible.
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  And I'll share a simple, you know, part of our office
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  culture. There's a, there's a giant wall
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  in our office and in big bold letters, it says we create for
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  patients. And we mean it.
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  It's, it's our ethos as to what, you know, inspires us and
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  embodies the daily work that our team pours our heart and soul
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  into every day. And so we know that we're doing
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  some really important work. And that's kind of the thread
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  that that binds us all together. We know we can help patients
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  living with glaucoma and cataracts and we can do this in
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  a a much more elegant way and preserve precious sight.
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  And it's so, so gratifying to see this dream come through to
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  fruition. And now we've got multiple
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  clinical trials with dozens and dozens of patients now with long
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  term follow up. Our, our longest set of patients
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  as you know are out three years from our initial trial and
• 13:50
  initial implantation. Like I said earlier, 95% of
• 13:54
  those patients are off of their topical glaucoma medications.
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  They're doing very well. Vision is excellent.
• 14:01
  And so we are in our phase three registration trials now that
• 14:05
  that you noted, that's great. These are the important trials
• 14:08
  that that we have to deliver to hopefully register our product
• 14:13
  with the Food and Drug Administration.
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  And so those trials are, are already underway, two large
• 14:19
  trials that we've been engaged with for the better part of a
• 14:22
  year, which is outstanding and we're on track to be able to
• 14:26
  deliver our expectation and our execution of those trials.
• 14:30
  And, and ultimately you're going to see more and more data come
• 14:34
  and be released from from Spyglass specifically big
• 14:37
  milestones for this year. You'll see a four year readout
• 14:40
  from one of our initial trials. That's inspiring because we we
• 14:44
  really believe that'll show the confidence in the ability of our
• 14:48
  drug delivery technology to elute for many years, not just
• 14:52
  three years. But beyond that, you'll also see
• 14:55
  us initiate our secondary platform.
• 14:58
  We're going to go into a human trial with our drug ring system.
• 15:02
  So it's not designed to be implanted at the time of
• 15:06
  cataract surgery. That's our main system that'll
• 15:08
  be hopefully in market 1st. But years later after cataract
• 15:13
  surgery, this secondary platform drug ring system is designed to
• 15:17
  be able to treat any patient that had previously had cataract
• 15:21
  surgery that still is struggling with their glaucoma medications.
• 15:25
  And that system has the capability to deliver drug for
• 15:28
  up to seven years. And so it could be an entirely
• 15:31
  additional platform for us to care for patients with glaucoma
• 15:35
  well beyond the intersection of cataract surgery.
• 15:38
  And we're excited about both. And so essentially improving
• 15:41
  lives for patients with chronic diseases like glaucoma.
• 15:43
  We've got multiple platforms that that potentially can really
• 15:47
  innovate and change how patients are cared for.
• 15:50
  Amazing. It's been obviously a really
• 15:52
  great year and looking like a good couple of years ahead.
• 15:56
  But you have also recently IPO this year, which is obviously an
• 16:01
  amazing moment for any biotech company, especially with the
• 16:05
  last few years. It's really, really exciting.
• 16:08
  What did that milestone mean for you and the team?
• 16:11
  It was incredibly gratifying because we we set this vision to
• 16:16
  launch this product ourselves, bring this product to market.
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  And as you know, those ambitions require funding to be able to
• 16:25
  run these massive phase three clinical trials for years, not
• 16:29
  just for three months, but we're going to follow these patients
• 16:32
  for years. And so it takes an incredible
• 16:34
  amount of capital to do that. We've been really fortunate for
• 16:37
  seven years in a row, we've had just fantastic investors that
• 16:41
  understand how important the system and this company can be
• 16:45
  for for truly innovating in this space.
• 16:47
  And so, you know, between our earlier private raises as a
• 16:51
  private company and now in February taking the company
• 16:54
  public for us, it signified that we now have the capital we need
• 16:59
  to get this product through our phase three registration trials
• 17:04
  and get us very close to launch. We have now funding through
• 17:08
  2028, which is incredible. Raising money is no small feat,
• 17:12
  especially in this day and age, but we've been really blessed to
• 17:16
  have excellent investors, folks around US that really get the
• 17:20
  story and, and want to see this product come to market to, to
• 17:23
  treat as many patients as possible.
• 17:25
  And this IPO really signified we can do this with the team, the
• 17:30
  innovation, and now the funding to go and do just that.
• 17:34
  It's it's, it's gratifying in a, in a huge way.
• 17:38
  Amazing. And obviously just to just to
• 17:40
  top it off, obviously where do you hope that spyglass is in the
• 17:45
  next 5 to 10 years and and what would the success really look
• 17:48
  like for you? I so I remind, I reminded our
• 17:53
  team this week, it's funny, we had a, we had a town hall the
• 17:56
  other day and I included one of our initial patients that that
• 18:01
  received our BIM IOL system. I remember I was in the clinic
• 18:06
  for I think it was their six month or one year follow up.
• 18:10
  I, I don't recall the exact visit, but I remember her
• 18:13
  daughter saying, Hey, do you mind if, if my mom shares this
• 18:16
  video? She, she, she has some things
• 18:18
  she wanted to say. And essentially we've now made
• 18:20
  this part of all of our new hire on board training because we
• 18:26
  see, you know, our system can be help millions of patients, but
• 18:29
  it's more gratifying when you hear it from patients
• 18:31
  themselves. And she talked to, you know, for
• 18:33
  minutes on how her life has changed and, and how grateful
• 18:36
  she is. And, and for me, success in the
• 18:39
  next, you know, 5 to 10 years is taking that moment from, you
• 18:44
  know, an early surgery to being able to treat millions of
• 18:47
  patients in this way and to be able to give them back their
• 18:50
  sight from cataracts, to better manage their daily maintenance
• 18:55
  of glaucoma with therapies that are now on board inside the eye.
• 18:59
  So it's great that we have wonderful data at this point,
• 19:02
  but the real dream is to see BIM IOL in the market in, you know,
• 19:07
  three years. That's what we have guided
• 19:09
  towards. We're going to file for FDA
• 19:12
  approval in 2028 and with good data.
• 19:17
  Fortunately the FDA we we hope will approve our product in 2029
• 19:21
  and we can launch. And then beyond that over the
• 19:24
  next say 5 to 10 years is to advance our secondary platform,
• 19:28
  this drug ring system to be able to retreat not only our own
• 19:32
  patients from the cataract post op phase, but also any glaucoma
• 19:37
  patient that's post cataract surgery regardless of what lens
• 19:40
  they have in their eye. It, it potentially allows us to
• 19:43
  treat even additional millions of patients and expand the
• 19:46
  market. So that's the vision, that's the
• 19:49
  dream we we started out to create for patients and I'd like
• 19:52
  to see both of our systems approved and in market.
• 19:55
  Amazing. Perfect.
• 19:56
  Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Patrick.
• 19:58
  It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on and learn about
• 20:02
  everything that you're doing at Spyglass.
• 20:04
  It's definitely a story to continue following, so thank you
• 20:07
  so much. Thank you.