The latest results from Genentech’s proposed eye disease treatments are demonstrating strong potential to help reduce treatment frequencies and deliver improved outcomes.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Genentech’s Vabysmo (faricimab-svoa) for the treatment of wet, or neovascular, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME).

Roche

Swiss drugmaker Roche’s experimental eye medicine faricimab matched Bayer and Regeneron’s Eylea against diabetic macular degeneration in acuity gains in two studies, including one in which patients had less-frequent shots.

Novartis’ Beovu matched Regeneron’s Eylea in vision clarity scores for a blindness-causing eye disease, the Swiss drugmaker said, after early safety stumbles for the medicine in another condition caused disappointing early sales.

KalVista Pharmaceuticals indicated that Merck had allowed the option deal between the companies for the intravitreal diabetic macular edema (IDME) drug KVD001 and future DME molecules to expire.

The U.S. FDA approved Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Eylea (aflibercept) Injection for all stages of diabetic retinopathy, which is the leading cause of vision loss in diabetic patients.

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Genentech announced encouraging results from the Phase II BOULEVARD study. In people with vision loss from diabetic macular edema, treatment with intravitreal RG7716 resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements in visual acuity gains compared with ranibizumab alone.