Dear Editor, We report short-term data on the development of intraocular inflammation (IOI) after intravitreal brolucizumab injection for exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Japanese patients in this letter. Brolucizumab (Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland), a new anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agent for the treatment of exudative AMD, differs from previous anti-VEGF agents by its smaller molecular weight allowing administration at high concentrations and presumably improved tissue penetration. In the HAWK and HARRIER studies, brolucizumab was reportedly non-inferior to aflibercept in terms of visual outcomes and more effective in reducing intraretinal and subretinal fluid [1]. Early US reports regarding the adverse effect of IOI [2] prompted a Novartis-appointed Safety Review Committee (SRC) to re-evaluate data from the clinical trials [3]. At the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Heier et al. [4] described SRC findings suggesting that female gender and Japanese ethnicity were risk factors.
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