GLG News by Ophthalmologists (US)

Surmodics and Merck agree to work together that could greatly benefit both companies.  For Merck, they will have access to a novel ocular drug delivery system that would expose them to expanding areas of retinal disease.  For Surmodics, they gain Merck's backing and glaucoma and retina medications...

This survey from the 2006 survey of members of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery highlights  emerging trends  in  refractive surgery showing large increases in wavefront, LASEK, and Phakic IOLS.  There was a smaller increase in Intralase.  Refractive surgery...

At the a keynote lecture at the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology meeting, there is talk about the exciting new intraocular therapies.  Much of this excitement has been generated with the use of Anti-Vegf agents (Macugen, Genetech) for retinal disease; and now those ideas are being applied...

At a talk at the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology meeting, new corneal images devices offer more information and features for anterior segment surgeons.  These new devices would be attractive to corneal specialists, refractive surgeons, and even general ophthalmologists.

Laser eye-treatment company TLC Vision Corp. said it agreed to sell all the common shares of OccuLogix Inc. to JEGC OCC Corp which is owned by a private equity firm.  Occulogix has some emerging therapies in different areas of eye care including Age Related Macular Degeneration and Glaucoma. ...

This article reports a contact lens associated infection with Advanced Medical Optics contact lens solution.  Despite owning less than 10% of the Market Share, AMO Complete® MoisturePlus™ (AMOCMP) multipurpose cleaning solution has been implicated in 60% of the cases of Acanthamoeba...

The VEGF Trap from Regeneron is a protein made up off human VEGF receptors fused to human immunoglobulin. This compound binds VEGF, preventing VEGF from binding to its natural receptors, interrupting the angiogenic cascade. The phase II study presented at 2007 ARVO showed promising results in patients...

At the recent ARVO meeting, Italian researchers performing a randomized clinical trial on patients with wet AMD found that patients treated with photodynamic therapy (PDT) with Visudyne (verteporfin, Novartis) plus Lucentis(ranibizumab, Genentech) had a better visual result than patients treated with...

This dietary case control study showed that higher dietary levels of omega-3 fatty acids, mainly from fatty fish, reduced the risk of age-related macular degeneration by 39%.  This is very exciting and supports previous obersvational studies showing the protective effects of diet heavy in fish...

This study from Italy shows that PDT combined with monthly Lucentis is much more beneficial compared to PDT alone.  Does this data show a role for PDT in the current anti-Vegf era and allow Novartis to still a claim share in this market?