Anecortave acetate for treating or preventing choroidal neovascularization

Abstract

Although there have been treatments and pharmacologic agents approved in the last several years to treat advanced stages of AMD, these treatments do not halt disease progression. Furthermore, it is clear that when dry AMD progresses to CNV in one eye, there is a substantial risk that it will progress in the other eye. Sight-preservation at early stages of the disease should be a key goal of research, yet there are no approved therapies for halting the progression of early stages of AMD. Patients may be encouraged to use vitamin supplements, cease smoking, and eat a healthy diet; however, these recommendations are not appropriate for all patients, nor are they embraced by everyone. A pharmacologic agent capable of targeting the early stages of AMD would be a welcome addition to the armamentarium of options for managing AMD. Trials are ongoing to evaluate the role of anecortave acetate as a prophylactic treatment to slow the progression of the early stages of AMD. Completed clinical studies have demonstrated that anecortave acetate possesses a mechanism of action that decreases CNV growth irrespective of the inciting angiogenic stimulus, has a dosing-interval that allows its use as prophylactic therapy, and is safe. The economic benefits associated with prevention and progression to advanced AMD, in even a small proportion of cases, is significant and could result in substantial cost savings to society as a whole while providing countless benefits to individual patients in terms of continued independent function, self-sufficiency, and improved quality of life.