Wider use of ranibizumab would cut incidence of blindness in diabetic macular oedema

Wider use of ranibizumab could help prevent sight loss in thousands of US adults with diabetic macular oedema. In the image, retina damage from diabetes

Ranibizumab is a monoclonal antibody fragment used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DMO) — a leading cause of vision loss in working-age adults in the United States.

Researchers developed a population-based model to investigate whether wider use of ranibizumab could help prevent sight loss in thousands of adults with diabetic eye disease, and publish their findings in Ophthalmology
[1]
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Treatment with ranibizumab 0.3mg at 4-week intervals would reduce the incidence of vision impairment (VI) by 45% and legal blindness by 75%, equivalent to nearly 6,500 cases — based on the approximately 37,274 Hispanic and non-Hispanic white adults with DMO in the United States eligible for ranibizumab treatment.

The study was supported by Genentech, developer of ranibizumab. 

References

[1] Varma R, Bressler NM, Doan QV, et al. Visual impairment and blindness avoided with ranibizumab in Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites with diabetic macular edema in the United States. Ophthalmology 2015; Published online Feb. 9, 2015. doi:10.1016.j.ophtha.2014.007

Last updated
Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, 28 February 2015, Vol 294, No 7851;294(7851):DOI:10.1211/PJ.2015.20067955

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