National Eye Institute to finance two-year study comparing effectiveness of treatments for macular degeneration

The National Eye Institute on Thursday said it will finance a two-year study comparing the effectiveness of Genentech's eye treatment Lucentis and cancer drug Avastin for treating wet age-related macular degeneration, the New York Times reports (Pollack, New York Times, 10/6).

The two Genentech drugs are related compounds that block the growth of blood vessels.

Lucentis was approved by FDA in June and costs $1,950 per dose -- 100 times more than Avastin, which is approved as a treatment for a number of cancers, including colon cancer.

Before FDA approved Lucentis, some doctors used Avastin to treat the eye disease with good results (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 10/4).

Maryann Redford, the administrator of the NEI grant for the study, said it will involve a two-year trial costing about $16 million.

The trial will follow about 1,200 people divided into four groups: one group will get a Lucentis injection every four weeks, one group will get an Avastin injection every four weeks; and two groups will get either Lucentis or Avastin on an as-needed basis.

Redford said the study will take four years to complete. Redford added that cost is not the primary reason that NEI decided to fund the study.

"Right now there is an uncontrolled experiment being done, in that many clinicians are using Avastin, but its safety and efficacy for this use hasn't been tested," Redford said, adding, "If the fallout also is that it can be done much less expensively, great."

Hal Barron, Genentech's chief medical officer, said the company is not interested in paying for a study comparing Lucentis and Avastin because it is unlikely that Avastin is a superior treatment and because the company prefers to spend money developing new treatments.

Barron added that 81% of patients pay less than $50 out of pocket for each Lucentis dose because they have Medicare or other insurance (New York Times, 10/6).