Specialties
Wet Macular Degeneration Treatments
Avastin
"A potential advantage of Avastin over other therapies for wet AMD is that vision improvement can occur within one week of treatment," said Dr. Rosenfeld, the principal investigator of the Bascom Palmer clinical trial. "In addition to the improved vision, Avastin causes a reduction in leakage from the abnormal blood vessels, and we observed a restoration of normal macular anatomy." Avastin, also known as bevacizumab, is manufactured by Genentech, Inc.
Patients with neovascular or the wet form of macular degeneration are thought to have elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in their affected eyes. VEGF is a protein that causes abnormal blood vessels to grow, leak, bleed and damage the macula resulting in vision loss. New anti-VEGF drugs work by blocking this protein and the formation of abnormal blood vessels that grow in the eye.
Lucentis
Lucentis is made from a human antibody fragment. Lucentis works by keeping new blood vessels from forming under the retina (a sensory membrane that lines the inside of the eye). In people with a certain type of eye disease, new blood vessels grow under the retina where they leak blood and fluid. This is known as the "wet form" of macular degeneration.
Lucentis is used to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration.
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