(Adnkronos) - “A due anni dall'inizio del trattamento, il 25-30% circa dei pazienti” con maculopatia “ha necessitato di una iniezione ogni sei mesi alla fine del follow up e questo è qualcosa che non avevamo mai visto e sperimentato con le iniezioni intravitreali. Ovviamente, il risvolto pratico sta in una riduzione probabile dei costi e in un miglioramento significativo della qualità di vita dei nostri pazienti”. Così Paolo Lanzetta, professore di Oftalmologia e direttore della clinica Oculistica università degli studi di Udine, durante l’incontro organizzato da Bayer a Mil
ano sulla formulazione aflibercept 8 mg e OcuClick*, una siringa pre-riempita per la somministrazione del farmaco.
ano sulla formulazione aflibercept 8 mg e OcuClick*, una siringa pre-riempita per la somministrazione del farmaco.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Maculopathy is a topic that is fortunately well known, at the same time unfortunately well known because, from the epidemiological point of view, it affects a large number of people.
00:18There are two large groups of maculopathy, the macular degeneration linked to age, of wet or neovascular type, which is in fact the main cause of legal blindness in the Western world.
00:33Macular diabetes is a component of the most complex type of retinopathy and this is the main cause of legal blindness in the working age population.
00:47Therefore, it has a significant impact on society, on the quality of life of our patients.
00:54Fortunately, for almost two decades, we oculists and primarily patients, have access to effective and safe therapies, which are represented by intravitreal treatments, often with so-called anti-VGF drugs.
01:13We went from the first-generation anti-VGF drugs, which required frequent intraocular injections, to the so-called second-generation anti-VGF drugs, which are characterized by the same effectiveness in terms of improvement of visual acuity.
01:31With this, I mean the possibility of maintaining the license of guidance of our patients and, at the same time, a reduction of the frequency of injective treatments.
01:45Initially, these therapies had to be administered on a monthly or bimonthly basis. The latest registrative studies, which included a drug called Aflibercet 8 mg, an evolution of a drug that we have already used extensively and with this we have decreed its effectiveness and safety.
02:09Aflibercet 8 mg, tested in two pivotal studies, PULSAR and PHOTON, macular degeneration linked to age, the first of the neovascular type, and edema macular diabetic, the second study, these studies have shown the therapeutic equivalence between the old Aflibercet 2 mg and the new drug,
02:31but, above all, a significant reduction in the number of treatments required a year, two years and three years from the start of the treatment.
02:42To be clear, in two years of treatment, about 30% of patients needed an injection every six months at the end of the follow-up of two years.
02:55This is something that we had never seen and experienced with intravitreal injections. Obviously, the practical outcome is a probable cost reduction and a significant improvement in the quality of life of our patients.