By Medha

USA: Abicipar was shown to have a longer duration of effect in patients with treatment-naive neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), according to a recent study in the journal Ophthalmology. This effect of abicipar for a longer duration allows for quarterly dosing and reduced treatment burden. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common eye disease and a leading cause of irreversible central vision loss and blindness in adults over 50 years of age.

Neovascular AMD (nAMD) is an advanced stage of AMD in which choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and fluid exudation from the immature vessels can result in tissue damage and severe vision loss.              Most of the legal blindness caused by AMD occurs in nAMD patients.

The standard care for subfoveal neovascular lesions in nAMD is anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapy. However, the frequent visits that are required for intravitreal injections and monitoring are a burden for nAMD patients, physicians, and health care systems.

There is an unmet need for longer-acting treatment that reduces the treatment burden associated with anti‐VEGF therapy in nAMD.
Rahul N.Khurana, Northern California Retina Vitreous Associates, Mountain View, California, USA, and colleagues report 2-year efficacy and safety outcomes of 2 dosing regimens of abicipar (every 8 weeks and quarterly, after initial doses) compared with monthly ranibizumab in patients with treatment-naïve nAMD.

Two multicenter, randomized, phase 3 clinical trials were conducted with an identical protocol. Analyses used pooled trial data. The trials included 1888 patients (1 eye/patient) having active choroidal neovascularization secondary to AMD and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 24–73 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study letters.

Read more: https://medicaldialogues.in/ophthalmology/news/abicipar-holds-potential-as-long-acting-treatment-in-neovascular-amd-study-72133
Source: Medical Dialogues

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