Intravitreal surgical medication administration (IVOM) has been a standard service for surgical ophthalmologists (ophthalmic surgeons) since 2005. “Macugen” was approved by the European regulatory authority EMA on January 31, 20061. Ranibizumab (“Lucentis”) was approved on February 22, 20072. With the MARINA and ANCHOR approval studies for “Lucentis”, the company Genentech was able to demonstrate that a monthly administration of 0.5 mg ranibizumab leads to visual acuity stabilization in around 95% of patients and that a clinically significant improvement in visual acuity can be achieved in around 34% of patients3,4. This medical breakthrough in the treatment of wet AMD prompted a large number of ophthalmologists in Baden-Württemberg, among others, to offer the treatment of wet AMD with bevacizumab in 2005 in order to help all those patients who would otherwise at least have to wait until the EMA approval and the availability of “Lucentis” in Germany would have suffered irreversible loss of vision. Bevacizumab and ranibizumab have an identical mechanism of action5. This means that a significant proportion of those insured by AOK Baden-Württemberg with wet AMD were already on bevacizumab therapy at the time “Lucentis” was launched on the market in February 2007.

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