New study reveals risks with Roche's Avastin for wet AMD versus Lucentis
A new Medicare analysis conducted by Johns Hopkins University in the USA was presented yesterday at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting, highlighting the relative safety of Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) and fellow Swiss drug major Roche’s (ROG: SIX) Lucentis (ranibizumab) compared to Roche’s Avastin (bevacizumab).
The study by Gower et al from Johns Hopkins University is a retrospective database analysis that includes 77,886 Medicare beneficiaries to compare safety of unlicensed intravitreal Avastin compared to Lucentis in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The study was funded by Roche’s subsidiary Genentech.
Over 10 months, patients with wet AMD treated with unlicensed intravitreal Avastin experienced an 11% increased risk of death and a 57% increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke compared to those treated with Lucentis. There were no statistically significant differences in heart attack and ischemic stroke.
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