Astellas on Saturday presented study results showing an increased treatment effect over time for its approved medicine for a common type of vision loss. The new data are probably enough to convince the Food and Drug Administration to remove restrictions on the drug’s use, but they still don’t measure up to a competing treatment from Apellis Pharmaceuticals.
After two years, monthly injections of the Astellas drug, called Izervay, into the eyes of patients with geographic atrophy resulted in a 14% slowing of retinal lesion growth compared to sham injections.
A separate group of patients received monthly Izervay injections for one year, followed by injections every other month for a second year, leading to a 19% slowing of lesion growth compared to sham injections.