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Improving vision with VEGF Trap-Eye

Focusing on vision: Dr. Georg Grötzbach (left) and Dr. Andreas Sachse of Bayer HealthCare are developing a treatment for wet AMD.

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Focusing on vision: Dr. Georg Grötzbach (left) and Dr. Andreas Sachse of Bayer HealthCare are developing a treatment for wet AMD.

Berlin – New hope for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD): VEGF Trap-Eye can achieve durable improvements in visual acuity and in biologic measurement parameters of pathological blood vessel formation. This was the outcome of the final evaluation of a Phase 2 study presented at the annual meeting of the Retina Society in Scottsdale, Arizona. Bayer HealthCare and U.S.-based Regeneron are developing VEGF Trap-Eye together.

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 65 in the western world. About 90 percent of late-onset blindness patients suffer from the wet form of AMD, which develops when new, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the retina and leak blood and fluid – thereby damaging the macula, a small spot in the back of the eye that enables us to clearly distinguish visual details. The two companies are jointly developing VEGF Trap-Eye worldwide for the treatment of wet AMD as well as diabetes-related and other eye diseases.