VIDEO: Unmet needs in diabetic eye disease

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 editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

So in terms of unmet needs, I'll kind of divide this into patients who are, who have active disease, and then also patients who are perhaps at risk for significant vision threatening disease. So in terms of patients with active disease that require treatment, the number one need is probably treatment burden. So we know from the clinical trials and real world clinical use that these medicines have to be used frequently and require a high number of visits for patients and their families to come to the office. So, for example, in the first two years of treatment for anti-VEGF medicines, on average, patients need about eight to nine injections and monthly injections in the first year and then may require six to seven injections in the second and third year. The number of visits and treatments necessary is quite a lot for patients and also can put a strain on physicians' offices as well. So having longer acting, more durable treatments is key to address this need.

Better vision outcomes is the second unmet need. So we know that anti-VEGFs are effective, and they do produce favorable vision outcomes, but one of the challenges is that there is somewhat of a ceiling effect. And so what we are looking for is the next generation of targets that play a role in the disease that by blocking those targets can actually improve the degree or the extent of vision recovery that we hope to achieve for patients. And then I think the third category is really more about early detection and diagnosis, because we have a, and this is really for patients that don't yet have significant disease, but we know the diabetic population is growing significantly and continues to grow with each year, and identifying those patients who are gonna be at risk for serious vision threatening disease, identifying them early, getting them appropriately engaged for a diet and lifestyle modification, getting them into the eye doctors for appropriate treatment and follow up is critical as well. So that's an important unmet need to address.