To mark World Clinical Trials Day on May 20, Victorian Deputy Premier and Minister for Medical Research, Ben Carroll has launched Cerulea Clinical Trials- a new specialist ophthalmic clinical trial facility established by the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA).

Cerulea Clinical Trials is supported by a $10 million investment from Breakthrough Victoria and is expected to deliver clinical trials to more than 2500 Victorians a year over the next decade and create 50 new jobs.

A fully owned, not-for-profit subsidiary of CERA, Cerulea Clinical Trials will specialise in advanced therapeutics to prevent and treat blindness, including gene and cell therapies, biologics and medical devices.

Cerulea will collaborate with pharmaceutical and medtech companies from around the world and be the home of clinical research conducted by scientists from CERA and ophthalmology researchers with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Surgery.

It will test new therapies for eye conditions such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, glaucoma, inherited retinal disease and other rare genetic eye conditions, with a major focus on trialing new therapies for diseases that currently have no treatment or cure.

In the next year Cerulea expects to begin new clinical trials on gene therapies for retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt’s disease.