Ophthalmology

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Intas Pharmaceuticals of Ahmedabad, India, seems to have overcome the manufacturing problems that led to ocular inflammation in 10% of the patients injected with the first three batches of razumab, a biosimilar for ranibizumab, according to two ophthalmologists who have administered the drug.

As a physician passionate about treating and helping patients with retinal disease, I continuously seek out and study new treatment modalities. It can be a very scary time for patients when faced with retinal conditions, such as macular degeneration, retinal detachments, and diabetic macular edema (DME).

Non-invasive photobiomodulation may help dry age-related macular degeneration by causing regression of drusen and improving retinal function with benefits in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity.

The first clinical trial of lentiviral gene therapy in ophthalmology met its primary objective, demonstrating safety and tolerability of subretinal administration of a lentiviral vector expressing anti-angiogenic proteins in patients with advanced exudative age-related macular degeneration.

The first randomized, controlled phase III gene therapy trial that is investigating treatment with adeno-associated viral vector delivery of human RPE65 in patients with RPE65 mutation-associated inherited retinal dystrophies is discussed.

Single-spot lasers used in photocoagulation usually deliver about 100 milliseconds of laser energy in a single burn. Although effective, they can cause peripheral visual field loss affecting the patient’s ability to drive.

The debate over pharmacologic therapy versus laser treatment for diabetic eye disease is back. The players are different–anti-VEGF agents and panretinal laser photocoagulation instead of anti-VEGF agents and macular laser photocoagulation.

Investigators in Israel have discovered a retinitis pigmentosa-causing mutation for which unaffected individuals can be mosaic, followed by autosomal dominant inheritance in successive generations.

Intravitreous injection with ranibizumab (Lucentis, Genentech) is well-tolerated, safe, and improves the functional and anatomic status in patients with visual impairment due to choroidal neovascularization (CNV) associated with rare diseases, according to findings from 6 months of follow-up in the phase III MINERVA study.

Real-world evidence confirms the benefits of intravitreous ranibizumab (Lucentis, Genentech) for treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD)-regardless of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) status.

Results from a phase I study of KVD001 (KalVista Pharmaceuticals) for the treatment of central involved diabetic macular edema (CIDME) show that this plasma kallikrein inhibitor was well-tolerated, not associated with any ophthalmic or systemic safety signals, and led to fairly long-lasting improvements in visual acuity (VA) and central retinal thickness (CRT) after a single intravitreous injection.