Allergan's wet AMD product to move to Phase III

Allergan Inc. (NYSE:AGN) reported top-line data from its double-blind Stage 3, Phase II study of 64 treatment-naïve patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that showed intravitreal abicipar pegol ( AGN-150998) improved mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) from baseline to week 16, the Stage 3 primary endpoint, by 6.3 letters at the 1 mg dose and by 8.2 letters at the 2 mg dose vs. 5.3 letters for 0.5 mg Lucentis ranibizumab. At week 20, abicipar pegol improved mean BCVA from baseline by 7.1 letters at the 1 mg dose and by 9 letters at the 2 mg dose vs. 4.7 letters for Lucentis.

Allergan said that although the trial was not powered to show significant differences between treatment arms, the data suggest that the 2 mg dose of abicipar pegol is "at least as effective as monthly ranibizumab with a longer duration of action." ...