Vabysmo (faricimab) is a drug developed by the pharmaceutical company Roche to treat two of the main causes of blindness that has just been included among the medications financed by the Ministry of Health. It is the first biospecific antibody for intraocular use indicated in the treatment of two retinal diseases: neovascular or ‘wet’ Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME).
If AMD and DME are not detected and controlled in time, they can lead to vision loss and disability, and this medication allows treatment intervals to be prolonged, which is very convenient for patients. “They are diseases that carry a significant economic and social burden,” stated Federico Plaza, director of Corporate Affairs at Roche Farma Spain, who recalled that in our country almost 60% of people with AMD need help from caregivers to carry out tasks. domestic and everyday.
“These caregivers are normally family members, who are not paid, and whose quality of life is reduced. There is an important unmet medical need for alternatives that can reduce this care burden while maintaining long-term vision. With faricimab, by extending treatment intervals up to 16 weeks in more than 60% of patients, the number of hospital visits could be reduced, which would reduce this burden,” he commented.
A major improvement in the treatment of AMD and DME
AMD is a chronic degenerative disease of the retina and “one of the main causes of vision deterioration in people over 50 years of age.” It currently affects around 700,000 people in Spain and “an exponential increase in its prevalence is expected due to the aging of the population,” as stated by Health in statements reported by the newspaper Infobae.
Almost 80% of patients with nAMD and DME treated with Vabysmo increase the treatment interval, keeping their disease under control
DME is an ocular complication derived from diabetes that affects 7% of people who suffer from this disease and is characterized by inflammation and fluid accumulation in the macula, the area of the eye that is responsible for central vision and the details, so those affected may lose visual acuity, as explained by the Spanish Diabetes Federation (FEDE).
Patients must receive continuous treatment that is based on intraocular injections. In this sense, Dr. Marta S. Figueroa, medical director of the Retina Unit of the Baviera Clinic and head of the Retina Unit of the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid, points out that “many people with AMD and DME have difficulty maintaining the intraocular injection scheme and frequent visits to the doctor, since it means interrupting their daily tasks, their jobs…, to travel to the centers where they receive treatment. It is not only an overload for patients, but also for their caregivers who have to accompany them. In this context, if we manage to space out the time between injections, maintaining the visual and anatomical results, we could help release the saturation that the health system is currently suffering.”
The approval of Vabysmo has been based on the results of four phase III studies in both indications, in which 3,220 patients and twenty Spanish centers have participated: TENAYA and LUCERNE in AMD, and YOSEMITE and RHINE in DME. Studies have shown that almost 80% of patients to whom this treatment has been administered in both pathologies reach a treatment interval of every three or four months, maintaining their disease under control in terms of visual acuity and anatomical results. The benefit-risk profile was also favorable in all trials.
