A number of companies could soon find out whether the European Medicines Agency will back pan-EU marketing approval for their respective products.

The future of GenSight hangs in the balance following the decision to withdraw its application in Europe for Lumevoq, the company's gene therapy for Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, and worries over a rapidly diminishing cash pile.

The 2021 collaboration between Abbvie and Regenxbio to develop an anti-VEGF gene therapy for chronic retinal diseases is a noteworthy deal in the gene therapy space. But for both clinical and commercial reasons, it is a one-off opportunity and not an indicator of the overall potential of gene therapies to address eye diseases. Interest in optogenetics, however, which is the introduction of light-sensing genes into cells in the eye to restore vison, may be on the rise.

The Basel-based major has swooped to buy fellow Swiss group Arctos in the belief that optogenetics is a promising therapeutic approach that might restore sight to patients who are legally blind.