The US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) has approved Allergan's Ozurdex (dexamethasone intravitreal implant) 0.7 mg, a sustained-release biodegradable steroid implant, for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME).

Ozurdex was originally approved in June as a treatment for DME in adult patients who have an artificial lens implant (pseudophakic) or who are scheduled for cataract surgery (phakic). Based on ongoing review of clinical data demonstrating efficacy and safety, the FDA has now approved OZURDEX for use in the general DME patient population.

"Allergan is committed to developing innovative treatment options that address unmet patient needs, and retinal diseases such as DME are extremely difficult to manage," said Scott M. Whitcup, M.D., executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer, Allergan. "We are pleased that the updated indication supports the use of Ozurdex to help improve vision for more patients with DME."

DME currently impacts more than 560,000 Americans. It is an eye condition that can occur in people with diabetes (types 1 and 2) and causes fluid to leak into the part of the eye where focussing occurs (macula), causing blurred vision, vision loss and eventual blindness. The Ozurdex implant uses the proprietary and innovative NOVADUR solid polymer delivery system a biodegradable implant that releases medicine over an extended period of time to suppress inflammation, which plays a key role in the development of DME.

The FDA approval of Ozurdex is based on the MEAD (Macular Edema: Assessment of Implantable Dexamethasone in Diabetes) study where OZURDEX has demonstrated long-term efficacy in the treatment of DME without the need for monthly injections. MEAD includes two multi-centre 3-year sham-controlled, masked, randomized clinical studies assessing the proportion of patients with 15 or more letters improvement in best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) from baseline. The most common adverse events in the studies included cataracts and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). An increase in mean IOP was seen with each treatment cycle, and the mean IOP generally returned to baseline between treatment cycles.

The Ozurdex implant is also indicated for the treatment of macular edema following branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) or central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) and for the treatment of non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye.

DME is a growing public health problem due to the increasing prevalence of diabetes. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2010, 25.8 million people 8.3 per cent of the US population have diabetes; 1.9 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2010. A high level of health care utilisation is not surprising given the overall health status of this population.

FDA Approved Uses for Ozurdex (dexamethasone intravitreal implant) 0.7mg Ozurdex (dexamethasone intravitreal implant) is a prescription medicine that is an implant injected into the eye (vitreous) and used: to treat adults with swelling of the macula (macular edema) following branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) or central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) To treat adults with non-infectious inflammation of the uvea (uveitis) affecting the back segment of the eye To treat adults with diabetic macular edema.