Beirut, 10 December 2014:Anovel 2-mg injection has been approved for use against diabetic macular edema (DME) in Lebanon – which now joins more than 30 countries where Bayer HealthCare’s Aflibercept is available for management of the disease.
Approved for DME treatment in July by the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration, “Aflibercept is provided as a single 2-mg injection into the eye every month for five initial months, followed by an injection every other month after that, allowing ophthalmologists in Lebanon the ability to offer patientsa practical treatment option,” explained Dr. Haytham Salti, Retina Specialist.
European and US approval of Aflibercept to treat visual impairment that results from DME, which can lead to blindness if not diagnosed and treated early, followed the results of two phase 3 studies the result of which “were encouraging with patients experiencing improvement in their vision following intravitreal injection with Aflibercept solution,” he added.
How diabetes impacts the eyes
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.While diabetes patients are prescribed medication to control their blood sugar levels, fluctuations still occur that can cause damage to the small blood vessels in the retina: a condition known as DR.
These damaged blood vessels can leak fluid and lipids onto the central retinal area, called the macula, causing DME.
About Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)
Diabetic macular edema or “swelling of the macula” is the most frequent cause of vision loss in patients with diabetes and eventually can lead to blindness.Visual impairment due to DME is estimated to affect around three percent of people with diabetes around the world and is the most frequent cause of blindness in young and mid-aged adults in most developed countries.
Latest Treatment
Aflibercept decreases the abnormal growth of blood vessels in the retina by blocking a key “Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF),” a naturally occurring family of growth factors in the body that appears to play a critical role in the development of DME. By reducing the growth of new blood vessels, the leakage and edema will decrease and/or subside.Aflibercept also inhibitsa related protein called placental growth factor.
Aflibercept had so far been approved for the treatment of patients with age-related macular degeneration in over 80 countries, including Lebanon where it was launchedearly 2014.