Aflibercept 8mg in Patients Diagnosed With Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Who Have Been Treated With Aflibercept 2mg: the Eylea 8mg Switch Study

Aflibercept 8 mg was recently approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The higher dosage promises prolongation of treatment intervals up to 16 weeks. Only limited clinical data is available on switching from so-called suboptimal or non-responders. A retrospective analysis showed that aflibercept in 3 mg or 4 mg doses can improve outcomes in patients who do not respond optimally to aflibercept 2 mg. It remains unclear whether switching to the above-mentioned and newly approved aflibercept 8 mg will prolong treatment intervals and stabilize visual acuity in patients who are not treatment-naive.

The present study is a single-center observational study. The plan is to include 50 eyes from 50 patients who have previously received aflibercept 2 mg injections. Patients receive a routine 8 mg aflibercept injection in the eye clinic based on the existing treat-extend regimen. At each visit, a visual acuity test, optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, and a standard slit lamp examination with fundoscopy are performed. The injection interval is extended by two weeks. If the two-week extension leads to deterioration, the interval is shortened by two weeks. Patients are monitored in the study for 12 months.