High-dose Aflibercept with Increased Dosing Intervals as a New Standard of Care for DMO and nAMD

Abstract

The introduction of vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors has led to significant improvements for patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular oedema (DMO). Landmark trials – such as ANCHOR, MARINA and VIEW for nAMD and RIDE/RISE, VIVID and VISTA for DMO – showed positive results, including clinically meaningful gains in Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study letters, with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents now the standard of care for nAMD and DMO. More recent studies, including those investigating high-dose aflibercept in nAMD and DMO, have focused on durability of response by studying increased treatment intervals to reduce the treatment burden on patients and physicians alike. The PULSAR (nAMD) and PHOTON (DMO) trials included high-dose (8 mg) aflibercept at either 12-week or 16-week dosing intervals and showed non-inferior visual gains compared with the standard dose of 2 mg, with ≥83% of patients maintaining their extended dosing interval throughout the 48-week studies. This is certainly an exciting development, and it will be interesting to see how extended treatment durability will impact management paradigms for patients with nAMD and DMO.