ARVO LIVE: PHOTON study and dosing intervals

Ophthalmology Times® talked with David Brown, MD, about the PHOTON study examining the safety and efficacy of high-dose aflibercept for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) at this year's ARVO meeting.

Video transcript

Editor’s note: Transcript lightly edited for clarity.

David Brown, MD:

So I'm here at ARVO presenting PHOTON, which is a very interesting 8 mg aflibercept tested against the 2 mg aflibercept, which has 70 million doses worldwide.

mg aflibercept. Versus 5 monthly loading doses of 2 mg aflibercept. and then Q 8. Bottom line, we had visual acuity curves on top of one another, with less frequent dosing.

What surprised us was the amount of patients who could go Q 12 or Q 16. Ninety-three percent of patients at the end of 46 weeks, were able to go at Q 12, and 89% of Q 16. What we're presenting specifically at this meeting that's new, is what drove the patients that needed more frequent dosing. Not a surprise, it was patients with worse visual acuity, worse edema, probably those who have that increased VEGF demand that we see in sick diabetics.

However, the overall population right at 90% able to maintain at these longer dosing intervals, which is really exciting for both patients and those of us who take care of diabetic retina patients.

The next step for the research is the trial goes on. There's a 60 week cut for Europe. And then the trial goes on to 96 weeks.