Monrovia, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/02/2012 -- Casey C. Kopczynski, Chief Scientific Officer at Aerie Pharmaceuticals will give a presentation on “Rho Kinase Inhibitors for Glaucoma” at the 4th Ocular Diseases and Drug Discovery Conference taking place on February 27-28, 2012 in Las Vegas, NV.

Aerie's lead clinical product for glaucoma is AR-12286, a selective Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibitor designed to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) by improving outflow of ocular fluid via the trabecular pathway. This class of compounds acts directly on diseased tissue, the trabecular meshwork (TM), which undergoes pathological changes in patients with primary open angle glaucoma. An altered TM morphology eventually restricts the drainage of fluid from the eye, which causes an increase in IOP and ultimately damage to the optic nerve. ROCK inhibitors return the TM to a state that allows normal drainage of ocular fluid and thereby reduces pressure in the eye.

AR-12286 is a first-in-class product that has demonstrated an excellent safety, efficacy and tolerability profile in previous Phase 2 clinical studies with once-daily administration in a topical formulation (eye drop). Additional Phase 2b studies are being conducted in 2011 to further inform the differentiated product profile. Phase 3 clinical studies will begin in 2012.

Casey Kopczynski, is Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Aerie Pharmaceuticals. He is responsible for strategic planning and execution of Aerie’s drug discovery and development programs. Aerie's efficient and productive R&D strategy relies upon a small multidisciplinary team of in-house scientists to drive innovation while utilizing outsourcing partners for routine, resource intensive activities. Under his leadership, Aerie's R&D team has advanced three NCEs from discovery to clinical development in six years, including the first-in-class Rho kinase inhibitor AR-12286 and the novel dual-mechanism Rho kinase inhibitor AR-13324.

GTC’s 4th Ocular Diseases and Drug Discovery Conference will bring together a 50-50 mix of academic and high-level industry experts from leading affiliations to discuss and collaborate on the latest research and discovery, safety assessment, and development of drugs for combating and curing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, uveitis and other eye diseases. Leading scientists and researchers include key experts such as M. (Ken) Kengatharan, Barbara Wirostko, David Woodward, Henry F. Edelhauser, Ken Mandell, Bala Ambati, etc. The last annual conference was well attended with representation from key R&D professionals from GSK, Pfizer, B&L, Allergan and Alcon and this year is showing promise of being even bigger and better.

This conference is part of the Targets and Strategies in Drug Discovery Summit and runs concurrently with three other tracks:
1) 3rd Cancer Targets and Therapeutics
2) Oncology Partnering & Deal-Making Conference
3) 2nd Ubiquitin Research and Drug Discovery

For more information, please visit http://www.gtcbio.com