FDA ap­proves sec­ond ge­o­graph­ic at­ro­phy drug but caps use pe­ri­od, as Astel­las’ Iver­ic looks to spar with Apel­lis

Iver­ic Bio se­cured an FDA ap­proval for its ge­o­graph­ic at­ro­phy treat­ment on Fri­day evening, mark­ing the sec­ond drug that’s been cleared for a lead­ing cause of blind­ness.

The New Jer­sey drug­mak­er will launch avac­in­cap­tad pe­gol as Iz­er­vay in two to four weeks and set a whole­sale ac­qui­si­tion cost of $2,100 per sin­gle-dose vial, a spokesper­son told End­points News.

The nod pads the case for Astel­las’ re­cent­ly com­plet­ed $5.9 bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion of Iver­ic and fol­lows a Feb­ru­ary green light for com­peti­tor Apel­lis, which has run in­to rare but se­ri­ous reti­nal in­flam­ma­tion con­cerns since launch­ing its drug Syfovre.

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