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MACULAR DEGENERATION TREATMENT
MACULAR DEGENERATION TREATMENT
ANCHOR LEAD: FOR THE FIRST TIME A DRUG MAY HELP REDUCE THE DAMAGE OF MACULAR DEGENERATION, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
A drug called bevacizumab is making headlines for the treatment of macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness in elderly people. The drug is a reformulation of a cancer drug used to treat colorectal tumors. Some ophthalmologists are now using it in the eye, pending approval of the new formulation. Julia Haller, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins who’s done research on bevacizumab, says so far, she only sees one big disadvantage to its use.
HALLER: It does require intraocular injection which is a disadvantage. The future here is definitely going to be developing new types of delivery systems that you don’t have to have an injection in your eye once a month, but still before you are thinking about better ways to give the drugs you have to have a drug that works and Lucentis looks like its going to be the first really great drug for macular degeneration. :21
Haller anticipates FDA approval of Lucentis sometime this summer, and emphasizes that the drug works only for the wet form of macular degeneration. I’m Elizabeth Tracey reporting.
