Profile of ranibizumab: efficacy and safety for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration

Abstract

Youxin Chen, Fei HanDepartment of Ophthalmology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, ChinaAbstract: Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) causes severe vision loss due to the development of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The critical role of vascular endothelial growth factor in the pathogenesis of CNV is well understood. Ranibizumab plays an inhibitory role with CNV and reduces vascular permeability by binding to vascular endothelial growth factor. Intravitreal ranibizumab reduces the risk of visual acuity (VA) loss and increases the chance of VA gain compared with no treatment or photodynamic therapy for CNV in AMD. Some high-quality research has shown that the optimal timing for ranibizumab treating wet AMD is the first 3 months. It is recommended that ranibizumab is intravitreally injected monthly in the initiation for at least 3 months. Subsequent managing of regimens should be made dependent on the VA change, fundus examination, and image of optical coherence topography. An individualized strategy or combined method with photodynamic therapy is beneficial to the active lesion in the consecutive treatment of ranibizumab for CNV, and may be a good choice in order to decrease injection times. Regarding the safety profile, ranibizumab has been well tolerated in clinical trials. The principal ocular adverse event detected in clinical trials is a low frequency of ocular inflammation. Key serious ocular adverse events occurred in <5% of ranibizumab-treated patients in large-scale clinical trials. It appears unlikely that treatment with ranibizumab increases the risk of vascular events significantly. Less frequent injections on an as-needed schedule, based on monthly monitoring may have the most optimal risk:benefit ratio.Keywords: age-related macular degeneration, choroidal neovascularization, ranibizumab, efficacy, safety