[e-drug] RFI Macular degeneration Tx?

["Rannveig Einarsdóttir" <rannve@landspitali.is>]

E-DRUG: RFI Macular degeneration Tx?
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dear E-druggers,

I was wandering if you could inform me about how you treat macular 
degeneration in your hostpitals, do you use the newly licensed drug 
ranibizumab without restrictions and do you use bevacizumab as 
well?

Do you have guidelines that you could send me?

Best regards
Rannveig Einarsdottir
Divisional manager
Division of pharmaceutical affairs
National University Hospital
Reykjavik
Iceland
rannve@landspitali.is

[Hmm, at 1133 euros per injection this is not for the very poor..

EMEA has only registered it for the treatment of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Bevacizumab is closely related to ranibizumab. Bevacizumab hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for macular degeneration, but it has been approved as a treatment for colon and rectal cancer. That means that the use of this medication to treat macular degeneration is currently considered an off-label use of the drug. Still, some physicians are using bevacizumab injections to treat wet macular degeneration

Any eye specialist among e-druggers with some pharmaco-economic skills?
WB