Having known friends experiencing macular degeneration (AMD), a medical condition that can lead to blindness, my attention was caught by news of a growing trans-Atlantic controversy regarding an off-label use of the cancer drug Avastin, which has not received formal approval as an AMD treatment in Canada, the European Union, England, and the United States.
Avastin, an approved drug for chemotherapy and intended for intravenous therapy for cancer treatments, is being used by some doctors who extract smaller, sometimes imprecise amounts for injection into the eye. It is a risky treatment that even the manufacturer has warned against.
Eye care journalist Marilyn Haddrill reported on the news site All About Vision that at one point, the manufacturer “cited safety issues as the reason for halting sales of Avastin to compounding pharmacies that have been dividing Avastin into the smaller quantities used for treating the eye.” Those sales have resumed and the drug is still available to individual doctors.
The situation in Canada is particularly acute. As early as 2008, it was reported that off-label use of Avastin caused outbreaks of serious eye inflammation at four Canadian health centers where people had received eye injections for macular degeneration. Further risks were found in an April, 2011 study by the European Alliance for Access to Safe Medicines which reported that between 2007 and 2009, unlicensed use of Avastin for AMD resulted in 105 adverse reactions in Canada alone, more than any other nation in the study’s report.