Look back at pharma news to Dec 16

17 December 2016

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell. Editor

Ophthotech announced last Monday that no benefit has been observed in adding Fovista, an anti-PDGF-B aptamer to Lucentis, an anti-VEGF therapy compared to the Lucentis monotherapy in the wet age-related macular degeneration, or wAMD, patients.

Commenting on this, “Biotech Outlook” wrote on the Seeking Alpha blog that two drugs are under development by Ophthotech, Fovista and Zimura. Fovista is the most advanced candidate in the pipeline and the failure of its Phase III trials significantly decreases the value of the company. In light of the earlier failure of Regeneron's combination trial of anti-PDGF + anti-VEGF therapy, it also suggests this mechanism of action does not work. And the success probability of its ongoing Phase III trial testing Fovista in combination with Eylea and Avastin will likely fail as well in 2017.

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