News

New study with VEGF Trap-Eye: Shedding light on blindness

Insight: a doctor examines a patient's visual accuity. This can enable macular degeneration to be diagnosed in older patients.

Zoom image

Insight: a doctor examines a patient’s visual accuity. This can enable macular degeneration to be diagnosed in older patients.

Leverkusen – With treatment options for one of the leading causes of blindness in adults currently under close investigation, Bayer HealthCare and U.S.-based Regeneron are driving forward their joint global development program for the active substance VEGF Trap-Eye.

The recently launched, second Phase III clinical study VIEW 2 will evaluate the effectiveness of VEGF Trap-Eye in the treatment of wet AMD, the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration. Wet AMD accounts for about 90 percent of all severe AMD-related vision loss. It occurs when abnormal blood vessels in the eye leak fluid and blood into the macula. This can lead to a rapid loss of central vision with continued progression, and ultimately to blindness.

The recently launched study will enroll approximately 1,200 patients in up to 200 centers in Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Latin America. The first Phase III trial, VIEW 1, began enrolling patients in August 2007 in the United States and Canada. The development program, expected to be completed in 2011, compares VEGF Trap-Eye with Lucentis®, which is already available in several countries to treat wet AMD. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a naturally occurring protein in the body whose normal role is to trigger the formation of new blood vessels .