Very briefly SBIR-involved from soon after its founding, Kala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KALA) went public in July 2017. The firm is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company structured around research, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for rare diseases of the eye. Kalas biologics-based investigational therapies utilize Kalas proprietary Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome (MSC-S) platform. Kalas lead product candidate, KPI-012, is a human MSC-S, which contains numerous human-derived biofactors, such as growth factors, protease inhibitors, matrix proteins and neurotrophic factors that can potentially correct the impaired corneal healing that is an underlying etiology of multiple severe ocular diseases. KPI-012 is currently in clinical development for the treatment of persistent corneal epithelial defect (PCED), a rare disease of impaired corneal healing, for which it has received orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Kala is also targeting the potential development of KPI-012 for the treatment of Partial Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and ocular manifestations of moderate-to-severe Sjögren's and plans to initiate preclinical studies to evaluate the potential utility of its MSC-S platform for retinal degenerative di
