Belite Bio Presents Additional Analysis from Phase 2 Study of Tinlarebant in Stargardt Disease at the ARVO Annual Meeting

• Additional analysis of visual acuity loss, genotypic profiles, and retinal imaging data from a 24-month Phase 2 trial of Tinlarebant in adolescent Stargardt disease patients provides further support for the potential of Tinlarebant to slow and potentially halt lesion growth
  
• In 5 of 12 subjects (42%) with known pathogenic ABCA4 mutations, no incident atrophic (DDAF) lesions were formed during the 24-month treatment period and no change in QDAF was observed
• A novel lesion size quantification method that can better detect atrophic lesions revealed 8 of 12 subjects with atrophic lesion involvement within the macula at baseline; growth of these lesions into the macula was halted during the second year  
• In 6 subjects with prior bilateral BCVA loss (mean ~10 letters/year), mean BCVA loss over 24 months was 1.9 letters/year    
• Sibling subjects with identical ABCA4 mutations showed different rates of QDAF/DDAF lesion growth and BCVA loss         
• Tinlarebant is currently being evaluated in adolescent Stargardt disease in a Phase 3 DRAGON study, with interim data expected in 4Q 2024, and a combination Phase 1b and Phase 2/3 DRAGON II trial, and in Geographic Atrophy in a Phase 3 PHOENIX study

SAN DIEGO, May 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Belite Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLTE) (“Belite Bio” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical drug development company focused on advancing novel therapeutics targeting degenerative retinal diseases that have significant unmet medical needs, today announced additional findings from the 24-month Phase 2 study of Tinlarebant in adolescent Stargardt disease (STGD1) at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting. Tinlarebant is Belite Bio’s orally administered tablet intended to slow disease progression in patients affected with STGD1 and Geographic Atrophy (GA) in advanced Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (Dry AMD).

Genetic profiling was performed on the 13 adolescent STGD1 patients enrolled in a Phase 2 study of Tinlarebant. Eleven of these subjects (85%) harbored severe pathogenic/likely pathogenic ABCA4 variants. Despite these severe variants, 42% of Tinlarebant-treated subjects (5 out of 12) did not develop incident atrophic (definitely decreased autofluorescence, DDAF) retinal lesions and no change in questionably decreased autofluorescence (QDAF) was observed during the 24-month treatment period. Incident atrophic lesions appeared in seven subjects at different timepoints over 24 months; four of these subjects developed DDAF lesions after month 12. The mean DDAF lesion growth at month 24 was 0.51 mm² with a range of variation of 0.4 mm², a growth rate that is significantly lower than what has been observed in natural history studies. Importantly, six STGD1 patients who had a mean bilateral best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) loss of 10 letters per year prior to enrollment in the Phase 2 study showed a mean BCVA loss equivalent to 1.9 letters per year during the 24-month treatment period. Analysis of genotype-phenotype relationships revealed that sibling subjects with identical ABCA4 mutations had different rates of lesion growth and BCVA loss indicating that identical genotypes do not necessarily predict an identical course of disease.