First tick in lucrative eye market

Millions around the world could keep their vision, with the first ever treatment for the insidious eye condition geographic atrophy receiving approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA approved Apellis Pharmaceuticals' Syfovre for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration, which causes areas of the retinal cells to waste away and die in afflicted people. It impacts more than one million people in the United States and five million people worldwide.

"For the first time ever, we are celebrating the approval of a treatment for GA," Prevent Blindness president and CEO, Jeff Todd, said.