Real-World Utilization and Initial Experience with Aflibercept-ayyh (PAVBLU®) for Retinal Disorders in United States Retina Practices: A Descriptive Retrospective Analysis
摘要
Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies are standards of care for vision-threatening retinal diseases. This retrospective observational study describes demographics, utilization, best recorded visual acuity (BRVA), and safety among eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR), diabetic macular edema (DME), or retinal vein occlusion (RVO) treated with the biosimilar aflibercept-ayyh (PAVBLU®) in routine clinical practice.
MethodsElectronic medical records from the Retina Consultants of America database of patients receiving aflibercept-ayyh (12/1/2024–10/31/2025) were analyzed, focusing on eyes with ≥ 84 days of follow-up. The index date was defined as the first documented aflibercept-ayyh injection. Post-index data were used to evaluate treatment patterns, changes in BRVA, and adverse events of special interest (AESIs). Within-eye changes in BRVA were assessed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and summarized as mean change in logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (ΔlogMAR).
ResultsA total of 1000 consecutive eyes from 989 patients (55% female, 43% male, 2% unknown) received 3730 injections of aflibercept-ayyh; 91% switched from prior anti-VEGF therapy and 9% were anti-VEGF treatment-naïve. Disease distribution was 58% nAMD, 19% RVO, 16% DME, and 7% DR. Among switchers, median (IQR) number of prior injections was 21 (8, 46). Median (IQR) follow-up was 6.0 months (4.6, 7.1). Median (IQR) number of aflibercept-ayyh injections per eye was 4 (3, 5). Among eyes with ≥ 84 days of follow-up (n = 889), mean BRVA logMAR remained stable for switchers (0.4 to 0.4; P = 0.96) and improved from baseline in anti-VEGF-naïve eyes (0.5 to 0.4; P < 0.01). Confirmed AESIs included iritis (n = 2; 0.05% of injections), with no events of vitreous cells, endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, retinal vasculitis, or vitreous hemorrhage.
ConclusionIn this descriptive real-world analysis, aflibercept-ayyh was associated with stable visual acuity in previously treated eyes and vision improvement in treatment-naïve eyes, with no new or unexpected safety findings, consistent with expectations for aflibercept and the established body of evidence supporting biosimilarity between aflibercept-ayyh and reference aflibercept, EYLEA®).