Dr Eleonora Lad Highlights the Importance of Upcoming Pegcetacoplan Results

With no treatment options currently available for geographic atrophy (GA), an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), pegcetacoplan could fill a huge unmet need, explained Eleonora Lad, MD, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology, Duke University.

The drug is currently under review for approval with the FDA, which is expected to make a decision by February 26.

Transcript

There will be multiple presentations on the 2-year outcomes of the DERBY and OAKS trials of pegcetacoplan. What is the importance of this drug for the field?

It's such an exciting time for geographic atrophy. As we all know, geographic atrophy is a huge unmet need, and a drug approval during AMD Awareness Month would be a game changer for very large aging population. GA is a leading cause of blindness worldwide. Again, a huge clinical unmet need. If this happens, and we start developing treatments for this disease, this would constitute the most important advance in ophthalmology in the past decade.

GA affects 1 million individuals in the United States and 5 million worldwide, so a large population will be impacted. It's truly so important to begin to have a treatment for this disease in our clinics to offer our patients.

Based on the number of cases, why is there a disproportionate number of cases in the United States? Is geographic atrophy underrecognized or underdiagnosed globally?

Most likely. Because we haven't had any available treatments to date, I firmly believe that a lot of the dry AMD patients from earlier stages, but also geographic atrophy, are hiding in the comprehensive optometric clinics. There's no reason to refer them for retinal assessments or diagnosis and staging of the disease, because we've had absolutely no approved options for this disease.

As you know, the only interventions we can offer are the AREDS vitamins to slow the progression to the wet form or low-vision therapy for the really impacted patients. But truly no treatments have been approved for an option so far, so, why refer?