ABSTRACT Background To provide insights into the effectiveness and safety of faricimab for treatment‐naïve eyes with neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (nAMD). Methods A retrospective cohort study using a prospectively‐designed registry. Treatment‐naïve eyes with nAMD in Australia starting treatment with faricimab between Jan 2023–Sep 2024 were included. Controls were treatment‐naïve eyes starting with aflibercept 2 mg before 2022. Visual acuity ( VA ), macular neovascularisation activity, time to first inactivity, number of injections, injection intervals and number of visits at 12 months were investigated. Eyes treated with faricimab versus aflibercept 2 mg were compared using overlap weighting. The main outcome measure was the 12‐month VA change. Results Twenty‐three practitioners treated 160 eyes with a 4‐letter gain in VA (mean, 61.5–65.5 letters) and 48% attaining a dosing interval of ≥ 12 weeks, although 22% were still treated at < 8 weekly intervals. The small proportion (6.9%) of eyes switching to another agent had improved vision but were mostly active when switching off faricimab. Eyes received 7.2 injections (mean) at 7.4 visits (mean), receiving treatment at 98% of visits indicating a strongly proactive treatment regimen. Most (71%) lesions became inactive by 12 months with a mean time to inactivation of 10.3 weeks. Eyes starting faricimab had a significantly higher inactivation rate with more eyes reaching the last injection interval of ≥ 12 weeks than those starting aflibercept 2 mg. Conclusions These findings indicate that faricimab is safe and effective for treatment‐naive eyes with nAMD . Faricimab had a stronger effect on nAMD lesion activity than aflibercept 2 mg.
Gillies et al. (Sun,) studied this question.