Name: Advanced Vision Therapies Inc.
Location: Rockville
Big idea: Develops and markets therapies for the treatment of major sight-threatening eye diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss for people over age 50 in the Western world.
Founded: January 2003. Three scientists left Genetic Therapy Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, to found the company.
Web site: www.avtxinc.com
Who's in charge: Michael Kaleko, president and chief scientific officer; Sheila Connelly, vice president of development; Tianci Luo, vice president of research.
Funding: The company earlier this year received three grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $687,000 to be used for research. It also has received funding from Montgomery County, the Maryland Technology Development Corp., and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.
Employees: Five
Partnership: AVT is developing its products with academic collaborators from leading experts in the gene therapy field from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Stanford University. It also works closely with the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which is dedicated to finding cures for retinal diseases.
