2 Drugs Equal for Macular Degeneration

An older, cheaper drug helps a serious eye disease just as much as a newer, more costly drug, a study released this week says. The research compared two injectable drugs for treating wet macular degeneration. This disease gets worse quickly and can lead to blindness. The drugs are injected directly into the eye. The study included 1,200 people. They were randomly divided into 4 groups. One group received a monthly shot of ranibizumab (Lucentis). A second group got this drug, which costs $2,000 a shot, as needed. The other two groups were given bevacizumab (Avastin), which costs $50 a shot. One group got the drug once a month. The other group got it as needed. A year later, people who got their shots once a month had similar gains in vision, no matter which drug they received. And as-needed Lucentis preserved vision nearly as well as monthly Avastin or monthly Lucentis.