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Faricimab Safe, Effective in Neovascular AMD

— Two phase III trials show durable improvement with fewer injections

Ƶ MedicalToday

Both vision gains and disease control were sustained in all faricimab (Vabysmo) dosing cohorts among patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to research presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting.

In this exclusive Ƶ video, , of Massachusetts Eye and Ear at Mass General Brigham in Boston, discusses the results of the phase III TENAYA and LUCERNE studies.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

One of the exciting developments in treatment for neovascular macular degeneration was the recent approval of faricimab, and at the AAO, 1-year results were reviewed, and I think recently, 2-year results from that study also became available.

But the bottom line is that with this new agent faricimab, it looks like people were able to have good visual results with less frequent injections, which is always what we're going for.

It's also a new agent in that it's a combination agent. It targets two different antiangiogenic pathways versus just the anti-VEGF pathway. So, in addition to offering enhanced durability of treatment, I think it has a potential for helping people who may have suboptimal responses to anti-VEGF agents alone.

And I think that that's where we're going to be initially using this drug. I think that the population that I've been using it in, I'm excited to use it in, are patients who need very, very frequent injections of the anti-VEGF monotherapy. There are some patients who have needed it monthly for many, many years and despite that, may have persistent fluid within the retina, so signs of persistent exudation from wet macular degeneration. And those are the patients that we would like to try it on first, to, number one, see if we can dry up the persistent fluid, and number two, if we can get them on a more extended injection interval.

So I think it's definitely a step forward, and not only is it an agent that can extend the interval between injections, but it may provide some enhanced efficacy in patients who don't have the best response to the current drugs.

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    Greg Laub is the Senior Director of Video and currently leads the video and podcast production teams.