MELBOURNE, Australia and PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Opthea Limited (ASX/NASDAQ: OPT, “Opthea”, the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies to treat highly prevalent and progressive retinal diseases, including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), today announced that the Company joins the S&P/ASX 300 Index, effective Monday, September 23, 2024, prior to market open in Australia.

“Opthea’s addition to the S&P/ASX 300 Index reflects the Company’s strengthened balance sheet with proceeds from the recent financing completed in July 2024. We also reached a significant milestone by completing enrollment of close to 2,000 patients in the sozinibercept Phase 3 wet AMD program,” said Frederic Guerard, PharmD, Chief Executive Officer of Opthea. “We believe our inclusion in the S&P/ASX 300 Index may further diversify the Company’s institutional shareholder base as we progress our Phase 3 pivotal program to anticipated topline data readouts of COAST in early Q2 calendar year 2025 and ShORe in mid calendar year 2025 and prepare the organization for a potential US FDA approval and launch.”

The S&P/ASX indices measure the performance of ASX-listed companies across various sizes, industries, themes, and strategies. Each index is designed to represent a certain segment of the Australian equities market. The S&P/ASX 300 index, which is rebalanced semi-annually in March and September, measures the performance of 300 of Australia’s largest securities listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalization. The index includes the large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap components of the S&P/ASX index family.

About Opthea

Opthea (ASX/NASDAQ:OPT) is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies to address the unmet need in the treatment of highly prevalent and progressive retinal diseases, including wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME).

Opthea’s lead product candidate, sozinibercept, is being evaluated in two fully enrolled pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials (COAST, NCT04757636, and ShORe, NCT04757610) for use in combination with standard-of-care anti-VEGF-A monotherapies to improve overall efficacy and deliver superior vision gains compared to standard-of-care anti-VEGF-A agents.

To learn more, visit our website at www.opthea.com and follow us on X and LinkedIn.

Inherent risks of Investment in Biotechnology Companies

There are a number of inherent risks associated with the development of pharmaceutical products to a marketable stage. The lengthy clinical trial process is designed to assess the safety and efficacy of a drug prior to commercialization and a significant proportion of drugs fail one or both of these criteria. Other risks include uncertainty of patent protection and proprietary rights, whether patent applications and issued patents will offer adequate protection to enable product development, the obtaining of necessary drug regulatory authority approvals and difficulties caused by the rapid advancements in technology. Companies such as Opthea are dependent on the success of their research and development projects and on the ability to attract funding to support these activities. Investment in research and development projects cannot be assessed on the same fundamentals as trading and manufacturing enterprises. Therefore, investment in companies specializing in drug development must be regarded as highly speculative. Opthea strongly recommends that professional investment advice be sought prior to such investments.