Following the news that Roche has issued a voluntary recall of its Susvimo ocular implant due to manufacturing problems with the device;

Vinie Varkey, Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Despite the setback with Susvimo, Roche’s recent launch of Vabysmo means the company is still in a strong position in the wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) market—which is anticipated to reach a value of $18.8 billion by 2031, according to GlobalData estimates.

“Vabysmo has the potential to compete directly against Regeneron and Bayer’s market-leading treatment, Eylea. Low frequency of administration can be a big advantage in this market, as therapies that provide fewer applications have fewer issues with non-compliance. Vabysmo is administered every four weeks for the first four doses, and this frequency may be reduced to as little as twice per year depending on results of optical coherence tomography and visual acuity evaluations. That is a significant improvement over the current formulation of Eylea, which needs to be administered every eight to ten weeks, on average.

“While the frequency of administration associated with Susvimo (ranibizumab sustained release) represents a significant advancement over other anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) therapies currently used, the need to insert this implant via a surgical route represents a resource-intensive procedure and is likely to limit its wider adoption in the market. However, there is no taking away the fact that Susvimo will find value in a select population of patients who require regular treatments and have demonstrated good response to anti-VEGF therapies and have no specific contraindications to interventions. “

“While longer-acting therapies score a definite win for patients and physicians, it is also anticipated that the competition between Roche and Regeneron/Bayer to win patient shares for this indication will be fierce and one to watch.”