News Search: Lucentis

The journal Eye reported results of a one year trial at Boston University Medical School comparing bevacizumab (avastin) with ranibizumab (lucentis) for the treatment of AMD. Fifteen patients received avastin and 7 received lucentis.  Patients in the Avastin group had an average of 8 injections over the one-year period.  Patients in the lucentis group had an average of 4 injections.  Tests failed to showed statistical significance in vision between the two groups of patients.  Both groups showed an average improvement in vision of 1.5 lines on the vision chart. 

The New England Journal of Medicine Communications blog recently reported on the effectiveness of ranibizumab (Lucentis) for AMD.  “Only 4% of patients treated with 0.5 mg of ranibizumab and 5% of those treated with 0.3 mg lost 15 letters of vision at 1 year, as compared with 36% of patients treated with laser-activated verteporfin.” Of those that were treated with the ranibizumab, 36-40% gained 15 letters of vision, as compared with only 6% in the verteporfin group.

The Wall Street Journal and Marketwatch featured articles on the safety of Avastin.  Johns Hopkins University did an analysis of the Medicare patient claims database and reported that the use of Avastin for AMD showed a statistically significant increased risk for mortality and stroke as compared to Lucentis.  They cautioned that this analysis of 78,000 patients did not include information on smoking, lipid levels and blood pressure levels, all factors in mortality and stroke risk.