Beovu: A New Drug For Wet Macular Degeneration

By John Choi, MD

If you’re a baby boomer, chances are you know someone with macular degeneration. Maybe you yourself have been diagnosed with it. The macula is the part of the eye responsible for your center focusing vision, which allows you to read, drive, see faces, etc. Macular degeneration is deterioration from aging, resulting in loss of your center vision. There are two forms, dry and wet macular degeneration. The dry form is milder and usually causes little vision loss. The wet form is worse with swelling of the macula.

Wet macular degeneration is a leading cause of severe vision loss and legal blindness in people over the age of 65. By 2020, 1.75 million people in the U.S. will be suffering from wet macular degeneration. In many cases, patients are unable to read, drive or recognize familiar faces and are deprived of their independence. Without treatment, vision can rapidly deteriorate.

Currently there are three drugs to treat wet macular degeneration: Avastin, Lucentis, and EYLEA. All are given by injection into the eye. EYLEA is considered the most powerful of these drugs. It is recommended to be given up to every eight weeks. However, many patients require EYLEA monthly for the rest of their lives to maintain their vision. Each EYLEA injection costs $1,850, so the costs quickly add up.

Recently the FDA approved a new drug to treat wet macular degeneration, Beovu (pronounced BEE-OH-VIEW). In studies, Beovu reduced swelling in the macula more than EYLEA. It remained effective in many patients when given every eight or even every 12 weeks. Most importantly, it equaled EYLEA in preserving vision when given less frequently. Beovu is projected to cost the same as EYLEA. So Beovu has the potential to offer fewer eye injections, meaning less hassle and cost while preserving vision as well as EYLEA.

Now, there is no guarantee that Beovu will be as effective in the real world as it was in clinical studies. And insurance companies have yet to announce how much they will pay for it. But soon retina specialists will have another drug to treat wet macular degeneration and preserve that most precious asset, our patients’ sight.