Allergan's abicipar pegol non-inferior to Lucentis, but increases inflammation

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) and Molecular Partners AG (SIX:MOLN) said both dosing regimens of abicipar pegol (AGN-150998) met the primary endpoint of non-inferiority to Lucentis ranibizumab in the proportion of patients with stable vision at week 52 in a pair of Phase III trials to treat neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, the candidate led to a greater incidence of intraocular inflammation compared with Lucentis.

The SEQUOIA and CEDAR trials enrolled 831 and 817 treatment-naïve patients with neovascular AMD, respectively, to receive an every eight-week regimen of 2 mg intravitreal abicipar pegol, an every 12-week regimen of 2 mg intravitreal abicipar pegol, or Lucentis every four weeks. The primary endpoint of stable vision was defined as the proportion of patients with vision loss of 15 or fewer letters in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) from baseline to week 52...