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April 24, 2023
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VIDEO: Patients receptive to pegcetacoplan treatment for geographic atrophy

Key takeaways:

  • Apellis is finding patients are well educated on geographic atrophy and receptive to treatment.
  • Many patients are already familiar with intravitreal injections from having wet AMD in their fellow eye.

NEW ORLEANS — In this Healio Video Perspective from the ARVO meeting, Caroline R. Baumal, MD, chief medical officer at Apellis, shares some findings of early patient experiences with pegcetacoplan for the treatment of geographic atrophy.

“Since FDA approval, we have been working tirelessly to bring pegcetacoplan to our patients and to help retina specialists understand how to pull this into the treatment paradigm and make this the best experience for patients,” Baumal said.

Because of the large, heterogeneous patient population included in the DERBY and OAKS clinical trials, researchers have been able to glean interesting findings on the patient experience, Baumal said.

“Patients have been really receptive to this therapy,” she said. “Many patients are extremely well educated. They might have had treatment for neovascular AMD in their fellow eye, so they are familiar with anti-VEGF, and I think that the majority of patients realize that they are having problems with their eye that has GA, and they are receptive to having intravitreal injections.”

“Of course, the conversation between the retina physician and the patient is so critical, and we continue to evaluate data to better have a conversation for physicians to explain this to patients,” she said.