French revolution: committee OKs off-label Avastin in AMD
This article was originally published in SRA
Executive Summary
France has fulfilled its promise to make Roche's anticancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab) available off-label to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), even though two other products – Novartis's Lucentis (ranibizumab) and Bayer's Eylea (aflibercept) – are already approved for this use. The aim of the move is to save money by using the much cheaper Avastin in place of the two authorized drugs.