Private biotech Eyevensys said today that it won approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to advance its EyeCET platform into clinical development.

The company’s EyeCET platform uses an electro-transfection injection system to deliver non-viral plasmids that encode for disease-specific therapeutic proteins in the ciliary muscle of the eye. Eyevensys’ lead product delivers a plasmid that encodes for the production of a protein to treat non-infectious uveitis.

The French company’s trials would be the 1st for non-viral eye gene therapy.

“We are pleased the MHRA has approved our unique technology to enter into clinical development in the UK. This validation is another commitment of EYS606 alongside the ANSM approval,” CEO Raffy Kazandjian said in prepared remarks. “We are now all set up to demonstrate that our technology can provide much better outcomes for patients with ophthalmology diseases that need improved treatment options.”

EYS606 won orphan drug designation by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of non-infectious uveitis.