Patent ID: 7320786

Claim:
A method of treating neovascular disease of the eye, comprising: administering a conjugate to target neovascular tissue of the eye comprising: a photosensitizing compound selected from the group consisting of chlorines, bacteriochlorophylls, phthalocyanines, porphyrins, purpurins, merocyanines, psoralens, porfimer sodium, delta-aminolevulinic acid protoporphyrin, indocyanine green, benzoporphyrin, methylene blue, toluidine blue, texaphyrins, pyropheophorbide compounds, and verteporfin; and a targeting moiety that selectively binds to abnormal endothelium, wherein the targeting moiety consists of an antibody or an antibody fragment thereof that binds to a VEGF receptor; allowing sufficient time for the conjugate to clear from non-targeted tissue of the eye; and illuminating the eye with a light having a wave length or waveband absorbed by the targeted photosensitizing compound to activate the photosensitizing compound, and wherein the light has a combination of an intensity of light of less than 500 mW/cm 2 and a duration of illumination of about 4 minutes to produce a total fluence of light irradiation from between about 30 J/cm 2 to about 25,000 J/cm 2 which destroys the targeted neovascular tissue while the non-targeted tissue remains undamaged.