Allergan PLC has safety data in hand now showing that a reformulated version of abicipar pegol reduced the rate of intraocular inflammation seen in otherwise successful Phase III trials of the injectable for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and it plans to file the candidate for US approval by mid-2019, but analysts say the drug’s current profile does not look likely to compete well with Lucentis or Eylea.
Top-line data from the 28-week, 123-patient, open-label MAPLE study released April 2 showed an incidence of intraocular inflammation (IOI) of 8.9% overall, down from the more than 15% incidence seen in a pair of successful Phase III trials that reported out last year