VIDEO: How to talk to patients about AMD prevention

Editor’s note: This is a previously posted video, and the below is an automatically generated transcript to be used for informational purposes. Please notify cperla@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

I think the big message I would take to any patient right now is that if you have wet macular degeneration or dry macular degeneration, there is a plethora of treatments in and around the horizon and in our practice today. On the dry macular degeneration sides, if you have category three drusen or Fellow Eye Disease with neovascular AMD, you're eligible for AREDs vitamins, it's the most tried and true method of preventing progression. There's been two concurrent 15 year studies that have come out of the data, which has shown significant benefit in most patients in preventing the progression. If you have geographic atrophy, lo and behold, we probably will have a drug within 6 to 12 months to treat the progression of geographic atrophy in the form of Pegcetacoplan, which is a drug that's being investigated by Apellis; as well as in the GATHER1 and GATHER2 studies, a drug that's being looked at by Iveric Bio. And I think both of those studies look very promising with regards to ability to slow the progression of geographic atrophy. And finally, in the neovascular AMD front, we've seen a plethora of new mechanisms and sustained deliveries and soon enough, we'll have even different molecular size and structures, probably coming out in the near future. Even high dose treatment will be coming out in the near future. And that should make a huge difference in how we manage these patients.