Exonate Ltd and Johnson & Johnson entered into a collaboration agreement to develop an eye drop treatment for certain eye diseases.

Under the collaboration agreement, signed between Exonate and J&J's Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., the companies will develop an eye drop treatment for retinal vascular diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration, or wet AMD, and diabetic macular oedema, or DMO, by using mRNA targeted therapies.

Wet AMD develops when abnormal blood vessels grow into the region of the retina called the macula, which leaks blood or fluid resulting in scarring of the macula and rapid loss of central vision. DMO is the build of fluid in the macula resulting in loss of vision.

Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed in a Jan. 13 news release.

U.K.-based Exonate is a private biotechnology company that specializes in the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that modulate alternative mRNA splicing.