Roche Pharma India has launched Vabysmo® (faricimab) for the treatment of neovascular or "wet" age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME), two leading causes of vision loss worldwide. Vabysmo® is the first and only dual-pathway-inhibitor that targets and inhibits two disease pathways linked to a number of vision-threatening retinal conditions. It neutralises both angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), which are key proteins involved in the development and progression of retinal conditions, contributing to vision loss by destabilizing blood vessels in the eye.
Vabysmo® offers people the first new Mechanism of Action (MoA) in more than 15 years for nAMD and close to a decade for DME, stabilizing blood vessels in the retina and improving vision outcomes. It also offers better treatment durability with patients requiring eye injections at intervals of up to once in four months, while achieving similar vision gains and anatomical improvements.
The launch of Vabysmo® marks Roche Pharma India's entry into the ophthalmology space in India, underscoring their commitment to bring the best-in-class innovations to the country. With fewer eye injections over time, while also improving and maintaining vision and anatomy, Vabysmo® offers a more convenient and effective treatment schedule for patients, their caregivers, and healthcare systems.
Preventable and treatable vision loss is a growing global public health concern, with over 1 billion people living with vision impairment worldwide that could have been prevented. Retinal conditions are now affecting more people than ever before, with India home to one-third of the blind population of the world. Vabysmo® was first approved by the USFDA in January 2022 and is now available in over 90+ countries with more than 2 million doses administered.