A Tale of Two Eye Controversies and Macular Degeneration...

Test of Eye Drug Is Said to Show Success in Elderly..A far less expensive alternative proved roughly as effective as Genentech’s costly drug Lucentis in preserving or improving vision in elderly people with a common eye disease, according to two people familiar with the results of a closely watched clinical trial.Genentech developed Lucentis to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of severe vision loss in the elderly. While Avastin, which is a cancer drug, has not been approved for use in treating macular degeneration, it has the same mechanism of action as Lucentis. And Avastin costs only about $50 per injection into the eye, compared to roughly $2,000 for Lucentis.

Many eye doctors already are using Avastin off-label to treat macular degeneration, and many say it appears to work just as well as Lucentis. But there has never been a definitive trial to compare the two drugs. 

So the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, sponsored a randomized trial involving 1,200 patients. Results are scheduled to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The results will also be published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Safety of the two drugs will also be closely watched. However, experts say that with only 1,200 patients, the trial will be able to detect only major differences in safety. 

Another part of the trial compared injecting the drugs as needed, depending on the course of the patient’s disease, rather than on a strict monthly schedule. One source said Avastin was slightly inferior to Lucentis, but the other said the results of the two drugs were the same. 

The trial comparing the two drugs is of the type known as a comparative effectiveness study. Such studies are being encouraged under the new health reform law, though this one started before the law was enacted.

For more information about this article, to learn more about research, or about the Macular Degeneration Association, please visit us at http://www.maculardegenerationassociation.org/ As always please consult your physician before beginning a new health regime. The Macular Degeneration Association is please to announce our next educational conference: New Treatments for Wet and Dry Macular Degeneration on Saturday, April 30th, 2011 in Winter Haven, Fl. To learn more about this conference please visit us on the web. The Spring Educational Symposium will cover all the latest treatments and information about macular degeneration including genetic testing. Genetic Testing will be available for those individuals that show signs of macular degeneration or have been diagnosed with this disease. We look forward to seeing you there. Thank you for your continued support.

Resources:http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/test-of-eye-drug-shows-success-in-elderly/?partner=rss&emc=rss