Bayer HealthCare reports positive data from AMD drug trials

Bayer HealthCare has published new clinical data supporting the efficacy of VEGF Trap-Eye, a new treatment for the neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

The drug was trialled in two phase III studies, View 1 and View 2, which were conducted in parallel and compared the treatment to the current standard of care.

It was found that in both trials, Bayer's therapy proved to be non-inferior in terms of delivering maintenance or improvement of vision quality after 52 weeks, meeting the programme's primary endpoint.

Dr Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, the View 2 trial's principal investigator, said the predictable every-other-month dosing of VEGF Trap-Eye can help to "establish a new treatment paradigm for the management of patients with wet AMD".

Based on the study findings, Bayer will submit the treatment for EU and US regulatory approval in the first half of 2011.

Last week, Bayer HealthCare published new trial data for the atrial fibrillation drug rivaroxaban, demonstrating its benefits compared to warfarin.