New Biologic Drug approved by NICE
Orciplasmin or Jetrea from Alcon.
I am very excited about another new drug this year to help with treating people with eye disease of their Retina.
This drug is to treat a different condition compared to the Anti-Vegf drugs of lucentis (ranibizumab) and eylea (aflibercept) approved by NICE.
It is to treat people whose sticky jelly (vitreous of the eye) is ageing and collapsing and then pulling on the central part of the retain called the fovea.
This is the most sensitive part of the eye where we do most of our seeing, and if the sticky jelly is pulling on this part it causes distortion and blurred vision.
Traditionally the only option was a major operation of Vitrectomy done by our Vitreo-retinal surgeons. A significant operation with significant recovery time and inevitable cataract formation.
Now there is an option to try this intra-vitreal injection of Orciplasmin. While the success rate is not 100% around 40% of cases in the studies showed separation and improvement it means a significant
number of people will not need an operation.
Administration of the drug is just like an intravitreal injection so we are well use to performing such tasks. However the difference is that the drug is much more expensive than Lucentis (Ranibizumab) and has to come from Belgium frozen. So very careful handling and logistics will be involved. However my team are already preparing this and we look forward to gaining experience with this exciting new drug which has the seal of approval from NICE today.
K9 is also very excited, since the key test is a high resolution OCT (Optical Coherence Tomograrphy) of the retina and vitreous. This scanning laser ophthalmoscope is able to see things that the human eye with an opthalmoscope just cannot see. Based on t he scan results it is then possible to tell if the new drug is appropriate or not.
Nicholas Lee 2013