Brolucizumab: First Approval

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Funding The preparation of this review was not supported by any external funding.

Conflict of interest  During the peer review process the manufacturer of the agent under review was offered an opportunity to comment on the article. Changes resulting from any comments received were made by the authors on the basis of scientific completeness and accuracy. Anthony Markham is a contracted employee of Adis International Ltd/Springer Nature, is responsible for the article content and declares no relevant conflicts of interest.

Additional information about this Adis Drug Review can be found here.

Abstract

Brolucizumab (Beovu^®) is a low molecular weight, single-chain antibody fragment vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor being developed by Novartis for the treatment of exudative (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular oedema and macular oedema secondary to retinal vein occlusion. Based primarily on the results of the phase III HAWK and HARRIER trials brolucizumab was recently approved in the US for the treatment of wet AMD. This article summarizes the milestones in the development of brolucizumab leading to this first approval.