Faricimab for the Treatment of Diabetic Macular Edema and Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

• Main Authors: Lorenzo Ferro Desideri (Author), Carlo Enrico Traverso (Author), Massimo Nicolò (Author), Marion R. Munk (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2023-05-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15051413; 1999-4923
• Keywords: faricimab; anti-VEGF drugs; intravitreal injections; ang/tie; ang2; angiogenesis; Pharmacy and materia medica; RS1-441
• Source: Pharmaceutics, Vol 15, Iss 5, p 1413 (2023)

Nowadays; intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) drugs are considered the first-line therapeutic strategy for treating macular exudative diseases; including wet age-related macular degeneration (w-AMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Despite the important clinical achievements obtained by anti-VEGF drugs in the management of w-AMD and DME; some limits still remain; including high treatment burden; the presence of unsatisfactory results in a certain percentage of patients and long-term visual acuity decline due to complications such as macular atrophy and fibrosis. Targeting the angiopoietin/Tie (Ang/Tie) pathway beyond the VEGF pathway may be a possible therapeutic strategy; which may has the potential to solve some of the previous mentioned challenges. Faricimab is a new; bispecific antibody targeting both VEGF-A and the Ang-Tie/pathway. It was approved by FDA and; more recently; by EMA for treating w-AMD and DME. Results from phase III trials TENAYA and LUCERNE (w-AMD) and RHINE and YOSEMITE (DME) have shown the potential of faricimab to maintain clinical efficacy with more prolonged treatment regimens compared to aflibercept (12 or 16 weeks) with a a good safety profile.