Reports Of Five More Patients Allegedly Blinded By Eye Drug Avastin

LOS ANGELES– The New York Times has reported that five more patients who were allegedly being treated for eye disease with the drug Avastin have been blinded.  This report was made according to one of the patients and medical professionals.

The latest cases of Avastin allegedly occurred last month at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Los Angeles.

Late Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed that the problem had occurred and said that an investigation into the matter was continuing.

Made by Genentech, Avastin is a cancer drug that is commonly used to treat the wet form of age-related macular degeneration.

It’s also utilized to treat other eye diseases because it costs only about $50 an injection.  The low cost of the treatments saves Medicare and patients hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

This is compared with using Lucentis, a somewhat similar Genentech drug which is approved for the treatment of eye diseases, but costs about $2,000 an injection.

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