This is the first FDA-approved medication for this devastating eye disease that has become the leading cause of legal blindness in North America and Europe.
Most people lose vision as a result of the wet type of macular degeneration.
These blood vessels leak fluid and blood, which cause the retina or macula to degenerate. The only other proven treatment for AMD is standard laser photocoagulation. This treatment, although effective at eliminating the abnormal blood vessels, also damages the normal structures of the retina in the overlying and immediate surrounding areas. Visudyne therapy involves an IV infusion of a special dye that is taken up preferentially in these abnormal blood vessels under the retina. A low-level laser light is shone at these blood vessels 15 minutes after the infusion has begun.