12-week regimen easier for patients and physicians

AMD sufferers provided relief from the stress and inconvenience of monthly injections

Sean Henahan

Published: Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Many patients receiving the anti-VEGF agent brolucizumab (RTH258, Novartis) can be treated successfully with a 12-week dosing regimen, providing some relief from the stress and inconvenience of monthly injections, according to a report at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2018 Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Glenn J. Jaffe MD presented new findings suggesting that more than 80% of patients who had received a 6mg intravitreal injection of brolucizumab at 12-week intervals during the HAWK and HARRIER clinical trials were able to continue quarterly treatment for approximately one year.

Dr Jaffe, Chief of Retinal Ophthalmology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, US, noted that the ability to identify neovascular AMD patients who could be treated at the longer treatment interval would simplify things for both the patient and the treating physician.

"These robust data may offer physicians confidence that when 12-week dosing with brolucizumab is initially successful, there is high probability that the patient will maintain this interval through the first year of treatment," said Dr Jaffe.

Brolucizumab is the latest arrival in the increasingly crowded field of anti-VEGF treatment options for neovascular AMD. It is a humanised single-chain antibody fragment. The hope is that the smaller size of the molecule could translate to better tissue penetration and faster systemic clearance.

The present study follows up on previously reported results of the HAWK and HARRIER trials that compared brolucizumab and aflibercept. Those studies found similar levels of safety and efficacy for the two agents in the treatment of neovascular AMD.