94 million people live with cataract-related vision impairment, and no non-surgical pharmacological therapy has been approved. Opcure is advancing a pivotal Phase III RCT toward a global licensing partnership — target 2028.
Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide, affecting 94 million people with vision impairment. The only approved treatment is surgery — an intervention that is invasive, infrastructure-dependent, and inaccessible in much of the world.
The U.S. FDA has not approved any non-surgical pharmacological therapy to prevent, delay, or reverse cataracts.
Sources: Nature Eye 2024; WHO/IAPB Vision Atlas 2024; FDA Orange Book (April 2026).
Despite the enormous global burden, cataract patients today face a stark reality.
The single approved treatment is an invasive, infrastructure-dependent surgical intervention.
More than 30 million surgeries are performed each year, yet the procedure remains inaccessible across much of the world.
The U.S. FDA has approved no pharmacological therapy to prevent, delay, or reverse cataracts.
Zinc Sulfate 0.30% — therapeutic active, within the Japanese Pharmacopoeia range of 0.27–0.33%. Chlorpheniramine Maleate 0.06% — antihistamine, improves tolerability. Carboxymethyl Cellulose 0.50% — lubricant and viscosity agent.
Dosage: 2 drops, four times daily (Q6H). Self-administered and room-temperature stable.
Zinc re-metallates Cu/Zn-SOD (SOD1), reactivating lens antioxidant defenses that neutralize the reactive oxygen species driving cataract formation.
Mechanism 1Exogenous Zn²⁺ re-saturates metallothionein to the fully loaded Zn7 form, restoring the zinc buffer and breaking the oxidative-stress feedback loop.
Mechanism 2All actives sit within international pharmacopoeia limits, with an established safety profile and no new-ingredient CMC risk.
No new-ingredient riskSelf-administered eye drops, room-temperature stable, with no surgical intervention or specialist infrastructure required.
2 drops · 4× dailyMechanism supported by pre-clinical work (Abdul-Hussein 2014, Barman 2018, Heruye 2020) and observational data in 230 volunteers (90% positive response; no serious adverse events).
Pre-clinical models, observational data, and a granted patent portfolio built on established actives.
The 100-eye Phase III RCT — six-month treatment with efficacy follow-up to Month 12, double-blind and placebo-controlled, at an Egypt site — is designed to convert observational signal into rigorous controlled evidence.
The cataract treatment market is one of the largest opportunities in ophthalmology — and Opcure's patent portfolio covers the majority of it.
Prevalent cataract population across modeled markets: 218.5M. Peak Rx royalty to Opcure (Y10, adherence-adjusted, gross of patent expiry): $234M. Market size 2024: Grand View $7.13B, Meta Tech $8.85B, MRFR $9.10B, IMARC $9.2B. Patient and royalty figures: Opcure model. Management projections — see the disclaimer below.
Royalty income to equity holders, benchmarked against comparable topical-ophthalmic in-licensing transactions.
Received on signing with the licensee, targeted for 2028.
Aggregate milestone payments across the 2028–2030 development period.
Triggered at first commercial sale of the licensed product.
$234M at peak (Y1–Y10, 5% across patent markets), with $1.34B cumulative over the royalty period.
Cumulative probability of success to launch: approximately 19.8%. Discount rate: 20% pre-license and 12% post-license. All figures are management projections based on the assumptions stated in the investor brief — they are estimates, not guarantees.
BSc Pharmaceutical Sciences (Alexandria). PhD Organizational Psychology (Florida Tech). Leads strategy, investor relations and clinical development.
BSc Pharmaceutical Sciences (Alexandria, 1979). More than 40 years as a community pharmacist and a pioneer in extemporaneous ophthalmic preparations.
A clear, milestone-driven path from financing to a definitive licensing agreement.
Patents are published: US 11,433,096 and PCT WO 2022/009161. Financial model, clinical protocol and detailed deck available under CDA.
team@opcure.net