VIDEO: Using complement blockers in geographic atrophy

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Up until 2023, there were no options. There was nothing shown to ever affect the natural course of geographic atrophy. A common misconception is that the AREDS2 vitamins would benefit such a patient. And although that’s true, the benefit really only comes with decreasing the risk of conversion from dry AMD to neovascular AMD. It doesn’t actually affect the rate of growth of geographic atrophy or the natural course of it. So by blocking C3 with pegcetacoplan (Syfovre, Apellis Pharmaceuticals) and also blocking C5 with avacincaptad pegol (Iveric Bio), which is a drug under investigation in clinical trials right now, both have shown the ability to decrease the rate of growth of geographic atrophy. So slowing the growth could potentially slow the amount of vision loss or vision dysfunction over time in our patients. The way we use these complement blockers in practice, they are administered intravitreally, so patients and doctors are very comfortable and knowledgeable about that. So it’s a standard intravitreal injection, and it’s going to be administered on a frequent and regular basis, either every month or every 2 months, and that’s going to be ongoing. So that allows us to get the best results in terms of decreasing the rate of GA growth over time.