Apellis Pharmaceutical announced findings from the largest retrospective database study in geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to AMD. The analysis of the AAO IRIS Registry, the nation's first comprehensive clinical registry for eye disease, was conducted in partnership with Verana Health. The study highlights the significant impact of GA progression on vision, underscoring the high unmet need for GA treatment in clinical practice. The retrospective study included more than 69,000 patients diagnosed with GA and analyzed changes in visual acuity and disease progression for over 2 years, as well as the occurrence of concurrent wet AMD.

“There is no approved therapy for GA, and with new agents under development, it is essential to have a detailed understanding of disease progression in real-world clinical practice,” said Ehsan Rahimy, MD, lead study author and surgical and medical vitreoretinal specialist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, in a news release. “The data show that GA patients at their first encounter have useful vision that may be preserved if an effective treatment were available. The progressive loss of visual acuity observed in this study over a 2-year period underscores the urgent need for a therapy to slow disease progression.”

Key findings from the real-world clinical data showed the following:

• Progression from GA to new onset wet AMD was observed in 4.7% of patients with bilateral GA and 13.3% of patients with wet AMD in the contralateral eye during the first 12 months. The rate at 24 months was 8.2% in bilateral GA and 21.6% in wet AMD in the contralateral eye.
• At the first study visit, patients presented with relatively preserved vision, especially in eyes with extrafoveal GA lesions. However, patients with extrafoveal and foveal GA lesions progressively lost vision over time at a rate of approximately 5 letters per year.
• A large proportion of GA patients did not return for a follow-up visit after 2 years. Of the GA patients potentially eligible for inclusion in the analysis, only 40% had a follow-up visit after 2 years and were ultimately included in the study.