Pfizer announces UK launch of Macugen for the treatment of wet AMD

US pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer has announced the UK launch of its wet age-related macular degeneration treatment, Macugen (pegaptanib sodium). The product, which is a targeted therapeutic antibody, binds and inactivates a specific isoform of extracellular vascular endothelial growth factor responsible for the abnormal development of blood vessels at the back of the eye.

NICE appraisal scheduled for August 2006

A Pfizer spokesman told the Marketletter that, despite the EMEA's approval of Macugen, the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence had not yet begun its consideration of the product, which is expected to start in August of this year and conclude in 2007. He went on to say that, as a result, the product, which costs approximately L4,000 ($7,506) for a year of therapy, has been used by very few primary care trusts in the UK thus far.