Intermediate AMD Market Trends

Market Driver - Significant Unmet Need in Treating Intermediate AMD

Currently, there are few treatment options available for patients diagnosed with intermediate AMD, representing a substantial proportion of the AMD patient population worldwide. At this stage, patients do not exhibit any visual impairment or vision loss, but are at high risk of progressing to the more advanced late stage of AMD known as geographic atrophy or wet AMD. Both these late-stage forms can result in severe and irreversible loss of central vision if left untreated.

The challenge is that despite being at high risk, patients with intermediate AMD cannot currently be offered any effective preventive or disease modifying therapy. While treatments such as anti-VEGF injections have revolutionized the treatment of wet AMD, they only provide benefit once the disease has progressed to the late stage. By the time intermediate AMD patients develop wet AMD, they have often already suffered significant and avoidable vision loss.

Lifestyle interventions to control cardiovascular risk factors or nutritional supplements have shown limited effectiveness in large clinical trials. There remains a pressing need to develop new pharmaceutical or gene therapy treatments that can reliably halt or slow disease progression at the intermediate AMD stage, before irreversible vision loss occurs.

Market Driver - Rising Prevalence of AMD in Aging Populations

With worldwide life expectancies continuing their upward trend, the total number of people living at ages where AMD is most rampant is growing enormously. In the United States alone, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to double from 52 million to over 95 million between 2020 to 2060. Similar rapid expansions are projected across Europe and in most developed Asian countries.

As populations age in this manner, the sheer volume of AMD cases is expected to escalate tremendously in the coming decades. Even in developing regions, age structures are shifting upwards due to declining birth rates and improved healthcare. This exponential aging phenomenon will overwhelm existing vision care infrastructure and budgets if effective solutions are not implemented proactively. Already, AMD accounts for 8.7% of all blindness globally.

Failure to develop innovative strategies to prevent, detect and treat AMD earlier will likely result in massive human and economic costs worldwide from avoidable vision impairment. Advancing scientific understanding of AMD pathogenesis and expediting the development of novel therapies, therefore, takes on heightened importance in the current context of demographic change.

Market Challenge - Limited Understanding of the Pathophysiology of Intermediate AMD

One of the key challenges faced in the intermediate AMD market is the limited understanding of the pathophysiology and progression of the disease. Intermediate AMD represents the middle stage between healthy aging of the eyes and advanced AMD with vision loss.

However, the biological processes that drive the transition from intermediate to advanced disease are still not fully clear. This lack of comprehensive knowledge makes it difficult to accurately predict a patient's risk of progression. More research is needed to understand the molecular and genetic factors that accelerate the degeneration of macular cells during intermediate AMD. Filling these gaps in knowledge about disease mechanisms is critical to develop more effective prevention and treatment strategies.

Screening and diagnostic tools also need improvement to better differentiate individuals who will remain stable from those requiring closer monitoring or intervention. Overcoming this challenge of elucidating the complex pathophysiology underlying intermediate AMD will help optimize management of the disease.

Market Opportunity: Introduction of Innovative Monitoring Programs like ForeseeHome for Market

One major opportunity for growth in the intermediate AMD market is the introduction of innovative home monitoring programs. These programs aim to increase detection of disease progression events through regular self-administered eye exams at home.

An example is the recently FDA approved ForeseeHome monitoring program. It allows patients to perform optical coherence tomography angiography scans monthly at home with a small handheld device and internet connectivity. The scans are then reviewed by health professionals. Such programs address a key need to improve surveillance of intermediate AMD patients who are at high risk of vision loss. They provide a low-cost, user-friendly solution for monitoring without frequent visits to an eye care professional. This can help to catch progression earlier when treatment may be most effective.

Wider adoption of monitoring technologies like ForeseeHome has potential to drive significant market expansion by facilitating close follow-up of more intermediate AMD patients. It also improves patient engagement and adherence to care plans through convenience.