New Drug Could Treat Macular Edema


A new drug that could treat diabetic macular edema has completed an advanced stage of clinical testing - with positive results. Researchers claim that macugen, developed by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals,could be used to successfully improve vision in patients with diabetic macular edema - a condition that is though to affect over 29 million people worldwide.

Results announced at today's World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin showed that patients using the drug reported significant improvement to their vision just 54 weeks after beginning treatment. Researchers found that 37% of participants treated with macugen were able to read more than 10 extra letters during an eye exam than they were able to prior to receiving the drug.

Eye experts commonly use laser therapy to treat the potentially blinding eye condition as there are no drug-therapies in use that reduce the symptoms of the eye disease. Researchers hope, that following further successful clinical trials, macugen could become the first drug therapy available to patients suffering from the increasingly common vision problem.

5th June 2010

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