The current state of treatment for geographic atrophy is marked by two approved therapies that slow GA progression: pegcetacoplan, or Syfovre, from Apellis Pharmaceuticals and avacincaptad pegol, or Izervay, from Astellas.
The approvals of these first treatments for GA were an important step in addressing the dearth of options to treat this disease, which is newly diagnosed in 160,000 Americans annually (Rudnicka and colleagues). Although these drugs allow us to treat patients with something rather than nothing, they insufficiently preserve vision in many patients, and data have not shown that