Faricimab outclasses aflibercept in treatment of nAMD

In adult patients with treatment-naive neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), the use of faricimab shows superior anatomic outcome compared with aflibercept during the head-to-head dosing phase, reports a study.

In addition, treatment with faricimab results in a faster time to first absence of retinal fluid.

This study randomized 1,329 participants in a 1:1 ratio to either intravitreal faricimab (n=665) 6.0 mg up to every 16 weeks (Q16W) after four initial dose every 4 weeks (Q4W) or aflibercept (n=664) 2.0 mg every 8 weeks (Q8W) after three initial doses given Q4W.

Faricimab showed greater reductions (p<0.0001) in adjusted mean central subfield thickness (CST) from baseline compared with aflibercept at weeks 4, 8, and 12. Vision outcomes were similar between the two treatment groups.

At week 12, more patients in the faricimab arm achieved an absence of subretinal fluid (SRF; 87.9 percent vs 79.0 percent) and both intraretinal fluid (IRF) and SRF (77.2 percent vs 66.5 percent), but not IRF (88.4 percent vs 85.0 percent), than those in the aflibercept arm.

Among patients with SRF or IRF at baseline (faricimab: n=581; aflibercept: n=591), the 75th percentile of time to first absence of IRF and SRF was reached at week 8 in the faricimab group and at week 12 in the aflibercept group. The cumulative incidence of first-time absence of SRF and IRF at week 12 was 85.5 percent and 75.0 percent, respectively.