FDA approves Roche’s Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) for treatment of diabetic retinopathy in people with diabetic macular edema

• First eye medicine approved for treatment of diabetic retinopathy with diabetic macular edema 
• Granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation and Priority Review by FDA 
• Diabetic macular edema can occur at any stage of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness in American adults.¹
• Fourth Lucentis indication for treatment of serious eye diseases since 2006

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lucentis® (ranibizumab injection) for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR), in people with diabetic macular edema (DME). DME impacts nearly 750,000 Americans, about 10 percent of people with DR. 

The FDA granted Lucentis Breakthrough Therapy Designation and Priority Review for this indication based on results from the RISE and RIDE Phase III clinical trials. 

“While there are various options for treating diabetic macular edema, before today none were approved showing improvement in retinopathy,” said Sandra Horning, M.D., chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development. “With today’s approval, people with diabetic macular edema now have a FDA-approved medicine that showed meaningful improvements in retinal damage from diabetes, in addition to the established improvement in vision.”  

Almost 29 million Americans have diabetes.² The longer people have diabetes, especially if it is poorly managed, the higher their risk for developing DR. It is caused by elevated blood sugar levels damaging the fine blood vessels of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye necessary for good vision. 

DR with DME is a common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness in American adults under 55.¹ DR with DME can lead to conditions that threaten vision.

The FDA designates Breakthrough Therapy to a medicine if it is intended to treat a serious or life-threatening disease and if preliminary clinical research suggests it may provide substantial improvement on clinically significant endpoints over existing therapies. 

The FDA grants Priority Review to medicines that, if approved, would have the potential to provide significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions when compared to standard applications. 

In 2012, Lucentis was the first medicine approved by the FDA for the treatment of DME.  Lucentis has also been an important option for patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) since 2006 and macular edema following retinal vein occlusion (RVO) since 2010.

References

1. Facts About Diabetic Eye Disease, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health.
   Available at: https://www.nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic/retinopathy  
2. [CDC] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National diabetes Statistics Report, 2014. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Sham and Prevention [resource on the internet; updated 2014; cited 2014 June 11]. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/statsreport14/national-diabetes-report-web.pdf