Novartis Shares Higher as Co. Says Newest Lucentis Data Reinforces Efficacy; UBS Removed Stock from 'Most Preferred' List

New clinical and real world data for Lucentis® (ranibizumab) presented in over 40 abstracts at this week's EURETINA congress confirm its transformational and well-established safety profile in four retinal diseases. Designed for intraocular use, Lucentis is an antibody fragment with a short systemic half-life and was first launched in Europe in 2007. Lucentis is now indicated in many countries for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), for visual impairment due to diabetic macular edema (DME), macular edema secondary to branch- and central-retinal vein occlusion (BRVO and CRVO), and choroidal neovascularization secondary to pathologic myopia (myopic CNV). "The abundance and quality of new data presented at EURETINA, in addition to the real-world long-term experience with Lucentis, speak to the importance of this anti-VEGF treatment for providing vision gains to patients and affirms its role as the standard of care in retinal medicine," said Dr Timothy Wright, Global Head Development, Novartis Pharmaceuticals

. "Further to its transformational patient outcomes in wet AMD, DME, and RVO, Lucentis has now established its superior efficacy in myopic CNV compared with verteporfin photodynamic therapy as well." Lucentis study highlights at the 13th European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) Congress in Hamburg, Germany include: Myopic CNV: In the RADIANCE global, Phase III, 12-month study, Lucentis was superior to current standard of care and improved mean visual acuity by around 14 letters at one year with a median of two injections[1]. [Free paper session 6] In REPAIR, a Phase II, 12-month study, a mean visual acuity gain of 13.8 letters from a low number of injections to month 12 (mean 3.6, median 3) was demonstrated. Myopic CNV patients treated with Lucentis experienced high overall treatment satisfaction as measured using the Macular Disease Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire. The overall score increased from 55.0 at month 1 to 64.9 at month 12 (p = 0.0001)[4]. [Free paper session 6] Safety profile of Lucentis: In a meta-analysis of 14 Phase II/III trials and 6504 patients across three Lucentis licensed indications - treatment of adults with wet AMD, visual impairment due to DME and visual impairment due to macular edema secondary to BRVO or CRVO - the safety profile of Lucentis was reported to be consistent with that from individual randomized, controlled clinical trials[3]. [Free paper session 6] The overall baseline characteristics of the first cohort of wet AMD patients included in LUMINOUS, a global long-term study being conducted in the routine clinical practice setting, were as expected and are representative of patients from a real-world setting[5]. [Poster session] DME: It was reported in the pivotal RESTORE trial that baseline visual acuity and duration of both diabetes and DME are strong predictors of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) changes over 36 months. Patients with a shorter duration of DME had better visual acuity outcomes, which highlights the requirement for prompt treatment initiation[2]. [Poster session] The RELIGHT study demonstrated that switching to bimonthly follow-up after the initial dosing maintains improvements in vision. Median visual acuity gains of 5 letters, consistent with those from RESTORE and DRCR.net studies, were achieved with reduced monitoring frequency[6]. [Free paper session 6]