Just as first Lu­cen­tis biosim­i­lar wins ap­proval, Roche snags an OK for an eas­i­er route of ad­min­is­tra­tion

It’s been a month since the FDA cleared the first biosim­i­lar to Roche’s block­buster wet age-re­lat­ed mac­u­lar de­gen­er­a­tion (AMD) drug ranibizum­ab. But the phar­ma gi­ant isn’t go­ing down with­out a fight.

Roche’s Genen­tech got ap­proval on Fri­day for a new ranibizum­ab ad­min­is­tra­tion route that will al­low wet AMD pa­tients to ditch their cur­rent month­ly in­jec­tions and opt in­stead for as few as twice-an­nu­al treat­ments.

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