Good news for RVO suffers as EU approves Novartis' Lucentis and NICE backs Allergan's Ozurdex

6 June 2011

The European Commission has granted Novartis a new indication for Swiss drug major Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) Lucentis (ranibizumab) to treat patients with visual impairment due to macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (branch RVO and central RVO), a sudden-onset disease where patients have difficulties with daily activities such as reading, cooking and driving.

Lucentis becomes the first anti-VEGF therapy licensed for the treatment of both branch- and central-RVO in the European Union, having demonstrated in pivotal trials that it improves vision and vision-related quality of life for these patients. The drug is already approved for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and generated sales of $444 million for Novartis in the first quarter of this year.

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