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Wet age-related macular degeneration

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 4, pages 711–712 (2005)Cite this article

Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. It results from the growth of abnormal leaky blood vessels beneath the macula that eventually damage the area of the eye responsible for central vision, which is essential for most fine-detail visual activities, including reading, driving and recognizing faces. In the US, an estimated 1.6 million adults over the age of 50 suffer from wet AMD and about 200,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. Worldwide, approximately 500,000 new cases of wet AMD are diagnosed each year. With only one drug indicated for the disease until just recently, the market for wet AMD therapeutics remains largely untapped. As a vision-threatening disease that affects a rapidly growing ageing population, AMD represents a considerable market opportunity for novel therapeutics1.

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Figure 1: Modes of action of selected treatments for wet age-related macular degeneration in clinical development.
Figure 2: Projected growth of the wet age-related macular degeneration market.

References

  1. Schachat, A. P. New treatments for age-related macular degeneration. Ophthalmology 112, 531–532 (2005).

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  1. Vice President at a division of Leerink Swann, MedaCorp,

    Irena Melnikova

  2. One Federal Street, Boston, 02110, Massachusetts, USA

    Irena Melnikova

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  1. Irena Melnikova
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Melnikova, I. Wet age-related macular degeneration. Nat Rev Drug Discov 4, 711–712 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1827

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1827

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