Clinical-stage biotechnology company Kiora Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:KPRX) and Global Genes, a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation focused on rare diseases, announced on Thursday that Kiora has joined Global Genes' RARE-X Vision Consortium, a corporate-nonprofit partnership with a mission to promote and facilitate collaboration among advocacy, research, and industry stakeholders to advance research leading to vision-improving therapies.

The Vision Consortium aims to change the lives of people impacted by rare ocular disorders by identifying clinical trial ready populations, ensuring outcome measures, and expediting the development of clinical trial programmes needed to bring new treatments to patients. It will bring together multiple stakeholders with the aim of overcoming shared challenges of successful drug development in a pre-competitive, open-source environment.

The Vision Consortium currently includes ADOA Association, Curing Retinal Blindness Foundation, Choroideremia Research Foundation, Eyes on the Future, Hope in Focus, LHON Collective, NPHP1 Family Foundation, Save Sight Now Europe, Snow Foundation, Upstream Genes, and Usher Syndrome Coalition.