New Hope for Age-related Wet Macular Degeneration

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New Hope for Age-related Wet Macular Degeneration

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006 | Macular Degeneration |

I’ve mentioned before that my mother is losing her eyesight to macular degeneration. She’s blind in one eye and has roughly 20% of her vision in the other. Now the FDA has approved a new drug, Lucentis, to treat precisely the kind of macular degeneration she suffers.

AMD is a significant cause of blindness for people over 55. People with untreated wet AMD eventually become severely disabled. 10% of all AMD is wet-AMD. However, 80% of AMD associated vision loss is due to wet-AMD. With wet AMD the area of the eye responsible for central vision becomes damaged as a result of the growth of abnormal leaky blood vessels. Lucentis blocks the growth of these leaky blood vessels.

Lucentis is given by ocular administration - injection into the eye. Clinical trials showed that almost 95% of patients with wet AMD suffered no vision loss for 12 months with Lucentis treamtment. This compared to 60% of patients who were on a placebo. 30% of the Lucentis-treated patients actually experienced improved vision after 12 months.

A smaller trial showed Lucentis protected wet AMD patients’ vision for 24 months.

One catch is the price:

The cost per dose is expected to be high - perhaps in the $1,500 to $2,000 range. Genentech has discussed reimbursements with Medicare, which is expected to pay a discounted rate for treatments once Lucentis is approved.

That’s steep, but considering that one dose is effective for a year or two, that’s not an unreasonable price tag. My mother has said she’d give anything to be able to see her grandchildren’s faces clearly. Put it that way, and two thousand dollars seems like a bargain. Retaining the vision she has also means she can hang onto her existing independence rather than going into a nursing home, which is a cost in money but a much greater cost in quality of life. We had hoped for a miracle. Now there is a miracle. It seems ungrateful to carp about the bill.

Too, the alternative treatment mom’s been undergoing for wet AMD has been repeated rounds of laser eye surgery to anneal the leaking blood vessels. That process is expensive, has to be repeated periodically, and leaves her with substantially worse vision during the one-to-two week healing process. She had to undergo laser eye surgery just before our wedding, and was essentially blind at the ceremony.

For people who can’t afford to pay for Lucentis, I’d expect family members, friends, churches, and community groups to rise to the challenge.