Roche has expanded its partnership with 4D Molecular Therapeutics to work on a drug for Choroideremia, night blindness.

After already partnering on the research of rare retinal disease indications in 2016, the two companies have announced their first collaboration program for 4D-110, a clinical candidate to treat choroideremia, an inherited form of night blindness that can show up in early childhood. The partnership includes clinical candidate programs that are underway to treat retinal diseases with a high unmet need, as well as 4DMT’s adeno-associated virus platform.

“Together we elected to expand our partnership after 4DMT completed proprietary intravitreal vector discovery and characterization,” said 4DMT’s CEO David Kirn. “We have created clear synergies between 4D’s vector discovery, gene therapy development and manufacturing capabilities and Roche’s expertise in late-stage clinical development and global biologics commercialization. The decision to expand our partnership represents validation of our ophthalmology platform, clinical candidates and team.”