Novartis has announced positive findings from their research into brolucizumab, an investigational drug being developed to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration. This data comes from year two of the Phase III studies, and reaffirms previous encouraging findings from the first year. For more detailed information about the data from this research, click here to see the source news release at Novartis’ website.
About Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (nAMD)
Age-related macular degeneration is an eye condition that usually occurs in people over the age of fifty. It can damage the macula (a part of the eye that helps people to see objects straight ahead sharply). In nAMD, also known as wet AMD, new vessels can grow under the retina and cause damage to the macula. Typically, nAMD causes more rapid and severe vision loss than AMD.
The Studies
Two Phase III studies, Hawk and Harrier, compared the effects of brolucizumab (the investigational drug) to aflibercept in more than 1,800 patients with nAMD. Both studies lasted for 96 weeks. After 48 weeks, brolucizumab met the main aim of the study, which was non-inferiority compared to aflibercept in it’s effects on best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA).
Second Year Results
Now, new data from year two has been made available. It was found that key secondary endpoints, retinal fluid (intra-retinal fluid/sub-retinal fluid) and central subfield thickness, showed a greater reduction with brolucizumab than with aflibercept. In addition, patients taking brolucizumab showed robust visual gains. Dr Dugel, the principle investigator for the trials, said that these results “reaffirm the excellent year one brolucizumab data regarding retinal fluid reductions.”
