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
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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