>> 10-05-06 1637ET By Patricia Kowsmann Dow Jones Newswires
The National Institutes of Health said Thursday that it will fund a study to compare two drugs by Genentech Inc. (DNA) used to treat the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.
One of the drugs, Lucentis, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration this year to treat the disorder, called age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. The other drug, Avastin, which is much cheaper, has been approved to treat colorectal cancer, although it has been widely used off-label to treat the eye condition, according to NIH's National Eye Institute.
Genentech has been criticized by some for the high price it is charging for Lucentis, which is derived from the same mouse antibody from which Avastin was developed [#msg-13795268]. Lucentis costs around 100 times more a dose than Avastin.
Avastin, however, doesn't have solid data from clinical trials on its safety and efficacy when used to treat the eye disease, which affects about 1.7 million people in the U.S.
The National Eye Institute said in a statement that its new comparative study will assess the relative safety and effectiveness of both Genentech drugs.
Representatives from Genentech weren't immediately available to comment.[They are probably huddling in a conference room right now.] <<
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