Razumab both safe and cost-effective for managing retinopathy by prematurity

The study results could be summarised as follows:

• In total, there were 118 eyes of 59 infants.
• The median gestational age and median birth weight were 30 weeks and 1250 grams, respectively.
• Twenty-eight eyes constituting 24 %, had APROP in 14 babies.
• Stage 3 disease was seen in zone 1 in another 28 eyes constituting 24%, and the remaining 62 eyes, constituting 52%, had stage 3 ROP in zone 2 posterior region.
• Twenty-two eyes had complete ROP resolution and complete vascularization at 55 days median.
• Forty-two eyes constituting 35%, had recurrent neovascularization at a median of 51 days post-razumab.
• The cumulative incidence of recurrence of neovascularization (21%) peaked at seven weeks and was significantly higher in eyes with APROP (43%) than in eyes without APROP (13.4%).

They concluded that based on our study's results, the safety and effectiveness of Razumab treating ROP is confirmed, with about a third requiring reinjection at seven weeks following the first dose.

The study's drawbacks are its retrospective nature and lack of a comparison group with the innovator ranibizumab.

The study's advantages are the large sample size and the use of widefield retinal imaging to monitor ROP and make more objective decisions.

Further reading:

Prajapati V, Choudhary T, Chauhan W, Shah S, Handa R, Jahan B, Malviya S, Sengupta S. Efficacy of a biosimilar ranibizumab monotherapy for the treatment of retinopathy of prematurity. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2023 Feb;71(2):411-415. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_973_22