Geographic Atrophy Treatment Market: Novel Therapies to Enter the Market

Geographic atrophy (GA) is a severe, progressive, irreversible vision loss in old age people. The loss in the vision is due to the damage in a small portion of the retina at the back of the eye, known as the macula. Since the loss of vision is due to age, it is also referred to as Age-related macular degeneration. (AMD).
Geographic atrophy is an advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration (dry AMD). Dry AMD is a result of deposition of small yellow substance, known as drusen, which leads to thinning and drying out of macula.

As estimated by the Angiogenesis Foundation, Geographic Atrophy affects more than 5 million people worldwide, out of which 22% of people are over 90 years old. Talking about Japanese Geographic atrophy prevalence, around 6.6% of the patient pool was of old age population of Japan, as studied by Yoichi Sakurada et al. (2016). Furthermore, Geographic atrophy account for 26% of legal blindness cases in the UK, as per the assessment is given by the National Health Services, UK.

Recently, a US-based pharmaceutical company, IVERIC bio announced the results of the trials of its complement factor C5 inhibitor, Zimura, indicated for reducing the rate of Geographic atrophy in dry age-related macular degeneration patients.

The trials showed no side-effects associated with the administration of Zimura. Zimura has a well-tolerable rate of 12 months. Moreover, there was no discontinuation of the therapy during the trial period due to any discomfort caused by the drug. However, slight complications were observed during the intravenous injection of the therapy directly into the retina.

Other Geographic atrophy Pipeline products

With no approved standard therapies at hand and increasing Geographic atrophy prevalence, there is a dire need of novel GA therapies. These unmet needs in Geographic atrophy therapeutics market will provide the new entrants in the GA market a bright opportunity to prosper and grab a major Geographic market share.

Geographic atrophy pipeline includes as APL-2 (Apellis Pharmaceuticals), HMR59 (Hemera Biosciences), IONIS-FB-Lrx (Ionis Pharmaceuticals) etc. which will positively impact the Geographic atrophy therapy market in coming years.