Oculis Holding AG announced that the latest findings of the DME AWARE Delphi study were presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2026 Annual Meeting.
DME AWARE, sponsored by Oculis, is a global Delphi initiative composed of a steering committee and panel of 25 leading retina and ophthalmology experts. The study aims to better understand the current DME landscape and to improve DME patient care by establishing a global expert consensus on unmet needs in DME management, Oculis said in a press release. The panel of experts answered 3 iterative anonymous surveys that posed critical questions about unmet needs in DME patient management, disease detection and assessment, and considerations for intervention.
Key findings from the DME AWARE Delphi initiative corroborated prior knowledge and suggest that unmet priority needs in DME include non-invasive treatment options, therapeutic options for early intervention, and novel therapies for concomitant use with current standard of care treatments. The goals of early intervention have been identified as improving or stabilizing visual function and reducing inflammatory factors. Furthermore, experts defined “early detection” as the detection of patients with DME prior to the presence of fluid and “early intervention” as the treatment of patients with DME prior to functional deterioration.
According to the press release, new findings from the third and final survey reinforce the strong need for non-invasive treatment options for early intervention in DME and showed consensus to treat with an eye drop in early intervention.
According to Oculis, these findings underscore the critical unmet needs in DME patient management including non-invasive therapies for early intervention and concomitant use with current standard of care.
“It was an honor for me to present these overall findings of the DME AWARE study, which reflect a truly global expert consensus on some of the most pressing challenges in DME management," said Professor Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD, PhD, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of California, Irvine and Gavin Herbert Eye Institute. "The results underscore the ongoing interplay between the clinical need for effective disease control to prevent vision loss and the challenges associated with current treatment approaches. They also highlight growing interest among leading retinal and ophthalmology specialists in how less invasive options, if proven effective, could help address significant unmet needs remaining across different patient populations and stages of disease. The Delphi initiative lays important groundwork for how we can shape the future clinical practice to meaningfully improve patient care and treatment outcomes.”
Riad Sherif, MD, chief executive officer of Oculis, also added, "While DME typically impacts patients at age 52, 60% remain untreated after one year due to the invasive nature of current therapies. As we approach the June readout of the pivotal DIAMOND trials, our Delphi survey confirms that a topical therapy could transform this landscape. OCS-01, a potential first-in-class eye drop, offers a non-invasive path for early intervention and a critical alternative for the 40% of patients who respond inadequately to injections."