The First-Ever Treatment for Geographic Atrophy (GA), the Advanced Dry Form of AMD, Has Been Approved by the FDA
What Does Atrophy Mean in Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)?
The retina is like the film in a camera and lines the back wall of the inside of your eye. Right behind the retina is a barrier layer called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which is also important for the health of the retina. In atrophic AMD, the RPE cells become sick and degenerate, leaving patches of tissue with poor vision. When atrophic AMD starts, the vision is often decreased in a non-specific manner. The vision is less clear, color and contrast vision are affected, and glasses do not help. This is equivalent to the film in the camera wearing thin right in the center but still functioning.
Approximately 10 million Americans have AMD, including nearly one million with the advanced dry form called Geographic Atrophy (GA), where discrete patches of the retina stop functioning entirely. This results in dark or missing spots in the vision. Atrophic AMD can sometimes cause black “ink spots” that are briefly visible when waking up or when the lighting changes suddenly. Patients will also sometimes experience their vision “jumping” because their eye is rapidly moving around, trying to find a spot with clear vision but struggling because healthy areas of retina are irregular and patchy. GA slowly robs people of their central vision, and impacts their ability to drive, read, and see faces. While treatment has been available for the wet form of AMD for nearly 20 years, patients with GA have not had a treatment option available, until now.
Vision loss from GA can severely impact a patient’s quality of life. 63% of patients have difficulty reading for everyday tasks, 38% felt helpless or embarrassed at their need for assistance, and 2 out of 3 patients lost the ability to drive in a median time of <2 years. [1]
Geographic Atrophy (GA)
SYFOVRE™ has now been approved by the FDA for all patients with GA, with dosing flexibility every 25 to 60 days. The treatment has a well-demonstrated safety profile following ~12,000 injections over 24 months and is indicated to slow the progression of GA. By targeting C3, SYFOVRE™ is designed to provide comprehensive control of an overactive complement system that is believed to be a key driver of AMD and GA. [2] SYFOVRE™ is injected into the eye by your BARA retina specialists at regular intervals in order to slow down the rate of disease progression.
"Bay Area Retina Associates is thrilled to have participated in the clinical trials that led to the approval of this first-ever treatment for GA, the advanced dry form of AMD." - Roger A. Goldberg, MD
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References:
[1] www.pre-lesion.com. A Patient’s Quality of Life Living with GA.
[2] www.globalnewswire.com. FDA Approves SYFOVRE™ (pegcetacoplan injection) as the First and Only Treatment for Geographic Atrophy (GA), a Leading Cause of Blindness.