Sophie Bakri, MD: Real-World Use of Faricimab in FARETINA-AMD Study

Results from the real-world FARETINA-AMD showed more than half of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) treated with faricimab were able to extend treatment intervals to ≥6 weeks after 1 to 2 intravitreal injections.¹

The data, presented at the 127th Annual American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Meeting in San Francisco, California, showed that faricimab treatment led to stable vision in previously treated eyes with nAMD, vision improvement in treatment-naive eyes with nAMD, and decreased central subfield thickness (CST) over 3 to 6 months in both treatment groups.

“I think we have an indication from this study, that over half of patients were extended for greater than 6 weeks, which is a good thing,” said Sophie J. Bakri, MD, chair of the department of ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, said in an interview with HCPLive. “I think, certainly, I found that in practice that I have had really great results from faricimab in nAMD.”

Faricimab, a dual angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) inhibitor, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2022 for the treatment of nAMD and diabetic macular edema (DME).² Since the approval, real-world faricimab treatment patterns and outcomes have been evaluated in real-world studies, including the TRUCKEE and VOYAGER studies. The retrospective FARETINA-AMD study evaluated the real-world outcomes of faricimab using data obtained from the AAO Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) Registry.¹

Patients included in FARETINA-AMD had a documented diagnosis of AMD and received ≥1 faricimab injection from February 2022 to June 2023, as well as had ≥6 months of follow-up, and ≥2 best-determined visual acuity (BDVA) measures on or after the first faricimab injection. The interval extension analysis was defined as >6 weeks apart in patients with ≥4 faricimab injections.

Overall, the study included a total of 25,784 previously treated eyes of 21,508 patients and 1,982 treatment-naive eyes of 1,836 patients. Approximately 66% of previously treated patients were switched from aflibercept, with a mean anti-VEGF injection frequency in the prior 12 months of approximately 7 injections.

Upon analysis, investigators found ≥50% of eyes with nAMD achieved an extended faricimab interval (>6 weeks) within 2 initial faricimab injections. Among previously treated eyes, 54.1% of eyes extended after 1 to 2 injections. Among treatment-naive eyes, 46.7% of eyes extended after 1 to 2 injections.

Most patients initiated faricimab treatment with 20/40 or better vision. Among those with ≥4 visual acuity measures, vision improved in treatment-naive eyes after 4 injections. Central subfield thickness (CST) measures showed a fluid decline after 3 and 6 months of faricimab treatment. Safety analyses showed 124 endophthalmitis events were identified during the study period, with recorded endophthalmitis rates per injection of approximately 0.05% across FARETINA-AMD and FARETINA-DME subgroups.

For more insight into the analysis of FARETINA-AMD, watch the full interview with Bakri in the above video.

References

1. _{Bakri SJ, Tabano D, Borkar D, Garmo V, Ahmed A, Myers R, LaPrise A, Ali F, Leng T, Singh RP. Real-world Outcomes and Treatment Patterns with Faricimab in AMD FARETINA. Presented at the 2023 American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, November 3 – 6, 2023.}
2. _{Kunzmann K. FDA approves Faricimab for patients with wet AMD or DME. HCP Live. April 15, 2022. Accessed November 21, 2023. https://www.hcplive.com/view/fda-approves-faricimab-patients-wet-amd-or-dme.}