Germany spends 3.28B euros on wet AMD

A survey of European countries has found that they spend up to 3.28 billion euros ($4.17 billion; in the case of Germany) per year on overall treatment costs for neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness for older people in the western world.

Data from the Burden of Illness study was presented by Gisele Soubrane, a professor at the University of Creteil, Paris, at the recently-held joint meeting of the American Society of Retinal Specialists and European VitreoRetinal Society in Cannes, France.

Prof Soubrane said: "it is startling that supportive care and medical costs incurred by people with wet AMD are up to eight times higher than those by their peers without the disease." Researchers involved in the BOI study noted that the physical and economic burden of wet AMD may potentially be reduced through earlier detection and improved access to new and effective treatments, including global giant drugmaker Pfizer's Macugen (pegaptanib sodium injection) a new selective anti-vascular endothelical growth factor inhibitor.