New Anti-VEGF Drug promises to reduce frequency of injections for Wet Macular Degeneration
A new anti-VEGF drug called Beovu has just been given a tick of approval by the Food and Drug Administration (the FDA is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services) for the treatment of wet macular degeneration (MD). It is rumoured to be available in this part of the world in late 2020.
The major advantage will be that, for many patients, the time interval between injections will increase substantially yet without losing effectiveness. For currently used drugs, such as Avastin and Eylea, injections are needed every 4 to 6 weeks (although for a proportion of patients this can extend out to 8 or 10 weeks).
Beovu has been shown to be very effective at 12 weeks between injections, and it is claimed that potentially many patients could be extended out to 16 weeks. Also when compared to Eylea, it seems to be better at drying out the macula which in turn may lead to improved longer–term preservation of vision.
The promise of less frequent injections and clinic visits is welcome news for both patients and for overburdened public health services. It may be that Beovu will be funded for those who require very frequent treatments with the currently available drugs. Pharmac and health insurers will be looking mainly at potential savings in the annual cost of treatment compared to Avastin and Eylea. Although there are considerable cost savings from fewer clinic visits the list price of Beovu in the USA is about NZ$2,900 per dose.
Other potentially ground-breaking improvements in wet MD therapy are in the pipeline.
At an advanced stage of testing is a refillable Lucentis “port” implant providing months of drug delivery from a simple refill procedure.
Also being trialled are several new drugs targeting alternative aspects of wet macular degeneration which may give improved control, like in combinations with one of the current drugs.
Lucentis and Eylea copycats are waiting in the wings for patent expirations and with these we can expect major drops in drug costs.
