This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Biosimilars for bevacizumab and ranibizumab show promise for retinal diseases
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Data for two new biosimilars for ranibizumab and bevacizumab, currently available in India, show the treatments are safe and effective for a variety of retinal diseases, according to a speaker here.
“Our data confirms that both these biosimilars are effective and safe. These could become the new safe, low-cost therapies for retinal diseases in the future,” Alay S. Banker, MD, said at the American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting.
The prospective, consecutive case series included 22,276 eyes that received Razumab (Intas Pharmaceutical), a biosimilar to ranibizumab (Lucentis, Genentech), and 2,237 eyes that received Zybev (Cadila Healthcare), a biosimilar to bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech). Patients in the study were treated for a variety of retinal vascular diseases, including choroidal neovascularization secondary to age-related macular degeneration, retinal vein occlusion and diabetic macular edema.
At 3-month follow-up, the mean logMAR vision of 0.72 at baseline for patients in the Razumab group experienced a statistically significant improvement to 0.54 (P < .05). The baseline central macular thickness of 406.15 µm improved to 314.1 µm, Banker said.
Patients in the Zybev group experienced a statistically significant improvement in logMAR vision of 0.68 at baseline to 0.56 at 3 months (P < .05), Banker said.
Eleven eyes in the Razumab group and four eyes in the Zybev group experienced intraocular inflammation, but no serious ocular or systemic adverse events were reported. – by Robert Linnehan
Reference:
Banker AS. New biosimilar bevacizumab and ranibizumab for retinal diseases. Presented at: American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting; July 20-25, 2018; Vancouver, British Columbia.
Disclosure: Banker reports he is a consultant for and receives honoraria from Santen.