Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Brolucizumab, a low-molecular weight anti-vascular endothelial growth factor, was approved in the USA in October 2019 for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Following post-marketing reports of vasculitis, including retinal occlusive vasculitis, a safety signal of retinal vasculitis (RV) and/or retinal vascular occlusion (RO) that may result in severe vision loss was confirmed. This brief communication reviews the trends in the cumulative reporting rates of RV and/or RO and associated vision loss from May 2020 to September 2022. METHODS: This is a descriptive analysis of the cumulative post-marketing reporting rates of RV and/or RO cases, and associated vision loss included in the Novartis safety database between May 2020 and September 2022, utilizing an enhanced pharmacovigilance program. RESULTS: The RV-alone rates demonstrated an upward trend, rising to 5.1 events per 10,000 injections by October 2020 and subsequently remained stable until July 2021. Thereafter, the rate for RV-alone events increased modestly until October 2021 and then remained stable until September 2022. The RO-alone rates increased to 3.4 events per 10,000 injections by January 2021 and subsequently remained stable until September 2022. The combined reports of RV and RO showed an upward trend until December 2020 (7.5 events per 10,000 injections), followed by a plateau until September 2021 and then a downward trend until September 2022. Vision loss associated with RV and/or RO progressively increased until December 2020 (5.9 events per 10,000 injections) followed by a declining trend until September 2022 to the most recent reporting rate of 4.1 events per 10,000 injections. CONCLUSION: The cumulative post-marketing reporting rates of vision loss associated with RV and/or RO, following brolucizumab treatment, have shown a declining trend after an initial rise in the reporting rates immediately after identification of the safety signal.