AbbVie Inc. seems unlikely to invest further resources or effort into anti-VEGF drug abicipar pegol for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) following a US Food and Drug Administration complete response letter on 26 June, and Molecular Partners AG, which discovered and initially developed the candidate, also appears to be positioning away from ophthalmology to increase its focus on cancer and virology programs.
Both companies announced the CRL on 26 June, noting that the FDA decided the drug has an unfavorable benefit-risk ratio in wet AMD due to high rates of intraocular inflammation (IOI) seen in Phase III studies. (Also see "Allergan's Abicipar Effective With Fewer Injections, But More Inflammation In AMD" - Scrip, 20 July, 2018
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