Tenpoint Therapeutics has tasked Carol Kearney with cracking a market that confounded AbbVie. As the biotech’s newly appointed chief commercial officer, Kearney will oversee preparations to launch a rival to AbbVie’s age-related blurry near vision product Vuity.
AbbVie won FDA approval for Vuity in November 2021. Ten months later, the Big Pharma cut spending on sales and marketing of the eye drop product. At the time, AbbVie took a $770 million pretax impairment charge in relation to its pullback from the promotion of the treatment for presbyopia, a condition that forces many people to wear glasses for reading and other close-up activities from their mid-40s onward.
Tenpoint is developing Brimochol PF for those people. The drug candidate, which was in development at Visus Therapeutics prior to its merger with Tenpoint, includes carbachol to constrict the eye’s pupil and brimonidine to stop it from dilating. Keeping the pupil small helps people focus on close-up objects.
While AbbVie validated the idea with Vuity, Tenpoint's Brimochol PF uses a different molecule to constrict the pupil and adds the anti-dilation molecule brimonidine. The combination could make Brimochol PF a longer-lasting drug than Vuity, as Tenpoint reported significant improvements out to eight hours in its phase 3 program. Patients on Vuity can take a second dose after three to six hours.
Armed with its phase 3 data, Tenpoint plans to file for FDA approval of Brimochol PF in the first half of 2025 and launch the product next year. Kearney has joined the company to prepare for the planned U.S. launch and lead its global expansion. In a statement, Tenpoint CEO Henric Bjarke outlined what Kearney will bring to the company.
“With her extensive experience in ophthalmology and her commercial leadership, I am confident in Carol’s ability to quickly scale up our commercial efforts and prepare for a successful launch of Brimochol PF,” Bjarke said in the statement. “We look forward to building a world-class commercial team under her leadership.”
Kearney is joining Tenpoint from consultancy Lumanity, where she worked as senior vice president for strategy consulting. Earlier in her career, Kearney held positions at drug companies including Pfizer and Bausch + Lomb.