Roche drug improves vision in diabetic eye disease

Reuters Health

* Lucentis vision improvement sustained through 24 months

* Diabetic eye disease less likely to progress on Lucentis

* More than half Lucentis patients achieve 20/40 vision

By Bill Berkrot

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Diabetic patients with macular edema who were treated with Roche’s Lucentis had significant and sustained vision improvement compared with those who received a placebo, according to data from a pair of pivotal clinical trials.

In addition, more than half of the patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) who received monthly Lucentis injections in the two-year studies improved to at least 20/40 vision, which would enable them to receive a driver’s license in most U.S. states — a result the lead investigator called ”amazing.”

”This is a real game changer. This can give you a rapid prolonged improvement of vision and it’s sustained for at least two years,” Dr. David Boyer, who presented the data on Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting in San Diego, said in a telephone interview.

”Within a week of treatment, Lucentis showed a reduction in thickness (of the edema) and improvement in vision,” added Dr. Boyer, who practices at the Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group in Los Angeles.

DME is currently treated by laser, which stops blood vessel leakage and can slow vision loss but rarely leads to vision improvement, researchers said.

Roche’s Genentech unit, which developed the drug, plans to apply for U.S. approval to treat the diabetic eye condition later this year, which could significantly boost sales.

Lucentis is already approved to treat wet age-related macular degeneration — the leading cause of blindness among the elderly. DME is a leading cause of vision loss among people of working age.

Lucentis (ranibizumab) met the primary goal of the two Phase III trials at both tested doses by helping significantly more patients achieve vision improvement of at least 15 letters, or three lines, on an eye chart than those who received sham injections.

In the 382-patient trial called Ride, 45.7% of those who received 0.5 milligrams of Lucentis and 33.6% who got 0.3mg Lucentis experienced vision improvement of at least 15 letters versus 12.3% in the placebo group.

In the 377-patient Rise trial, 39.2% who got the higher Lucentis dose and 44.8% who got the lower dose hit the primary vision improvement goal compared with 18.1% in the placebo group.

”This is a major paradigm shift. You’re going to see over a period of time more and more people using this,” Dr. Boyer said.

All patients in the two trials had vision problems related to their diabetes, researchers said. About 75,000 new cases of DME are estimated to develop among Americans each year, according to the ADA.

Lucentis patients in the studies were far less likely to see their disease progress to a more advanced form of retinopathy, the data showed.

Fifteen percent of those in the placebo group in one study and 11.5% in the other had significant disease progression. The rates for Lucentis were 5.6% and 3.9% at the higher 0.5mg dose and 1.6% and 3.2% at the 0.3mg dose.

Dr. Boyer said Lucentis safety in the trials was consistent with what has been reported in previous studies, adding that ”there was no real safety danger signals between the sham and the Lucentis groups.”

Publicerad: |2011-06-30|