Happy Return: QLT Bets Big on ForSight Plug
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Publicly traded QLT Inc. is trying to capture lightning in a bottle; it has acquired the second company spawned by ForSight Labs, the incubator created by The Foundry. The still unnamed company has developed drug-eluting punctual plugs that QLT believes could challenge the $6 billion eye-drop industry.
You may also be interested in...
QLT Shows Off Its Assets In Hopes Of Attracting A Suitor
The Canadian biotech has put itself on the block after a year of changes that have transformed the company from a commercial-stage entity with pipeline assets to a one-drug tax play.
Medical Device Market & Industry Briefs, August 2012
Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments. This month we cover continuing pressures on the DES and ICD markets, update Edwards’ efforts to roll out its Sapien device for TAVR, and report on QLT’s decision to sell its punctal plug technology.
Punctal Plug Can’t Keep QLT Afloat
Five years ago, QLT Inc. charged in hard and snapped up an experimental drug-eluting punctal plug technology created by incubator ForSight Labs LLC. At the time, we reported in START-UP that the punctal plug – designed to deliver drugs directly into the eye – might make or break the company. Looks like it was the latter. Last month, QLT’s newly elected board of directors instituted a broad reshuffling of the company. The board cut the work force by 68% and it intends to divest the still-experimental punctal plug technology, hoping to sell the line outright or spin it out into another entity.