Eye Health News

VA discontinues use of Avastin

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services says the Medicare program could have saved more than $1 billion over two years if Genentech’s cancer drug Avastin had been prescribed off-label for wet macular degeneration rather than Lucentis, the company’s similar, costlier

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services says the Medicare program could have saved more than $1 billion over two years if Genentech’s cancer drug Avastin had been prescribed off-label for wet macular degeneration rather than Lucentis, the company’s similar, costlier drug that is approved for the eye condition. Medicare patients themselves could have saved an additional $275 million, according to the report.

The off-label use of Avastin was recently been linked to eye infections when pharmacies separated large doses into single-use syringes.

Because of the reports of rare infections resulting from Avastin formulation for eye injections from a few, the VA Hospital System has temporarily disallowed its veterans from receiving Avastin injections for age related macular degeneration