January 23, 2026
2 min watch
Key takeaways:
- The programs are designed to provide anti-VEGF treatment for patients who are uninsured or underinsured.
- Enrolled patients experienced sustained vision gains and central subfield thickness reduction.
WAIKOLOA, Hawaii — Patients with retinal diseases who were treated with anti-VEGF therapies through manufacturer patient assistance programs showed sustained vision gains and central subfield thickness reduction.
During a presentation at Retina 2026, Murtaza Adam, MD, FASRS, stressed that patients who are uninsured or underinsured often lack access to necessary anti-VEGF treatments like bevacizumab. However, manufacturer patient assistance programs (PAP) sponsored by companies like Regeneron and Genentech are designed to provide “free, charitable anti-VEGF therapy to patients that are in the donut hole when they have insurance, or have no insurance at all,” Adam told Healio. “We took a look at our real-world patient experience at our practice in Denver, Colorado, looking over about a 7-year period. We had patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), diabetic macular edema (DME), vein occlusion and neovascular age-related macular degeneration.”
Adam’s study analyzed 113 eyes across 86 patients, who, before PAP enrollment, received two to three injections per year across all disease states, a range that increased to six to 12 injections per year after enrollment, Adam said during the presentation.
“This resulted in sustained visual improvement from about 20/100 to 20/50 at an average of 3 years of follow up, and a central subfield thickness (CST) delta of about 388 µm to 300 µm at final follow up,” he told Healio.
Adam noted during his presentation that CST reduction tended to plateau after one or two initial loading doses.
“We presume this is a little bit to do with the fact that a lot of these patients have PDR and minimal DME,” he told the audience.
Limitations of the data included a lack of demographic and economic descriptive data for patients, the limited number of patients yielding less powerful sub-analyses and a non-standardized treatment protocol across multiple diseases. There were also a number of patients who were either rejected by PAP programs, faced payment barriers or did not fill out an application causing them to be follow-up.
“These PAP programs have a lot of questions about income, insurance status, residency, etc., and so there can be a lot of hoops to jump through,” Adam told Healio.
Adam emphasized that PAP programs are not just a ‘stopgap’ for patients, but a sustained mode of care delivery for patients who are underinsured or uninsured.
“I encourage you to look into the PAP programs in your local area and to try to help these patients as best you can,” he told Healio.
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Adam M. Real-world visual and anatomic outcomes in patients receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy via patient assistance programs. Presented at: Retina 2026; Jan. 17-23, 2026; Waikoloa, Hawaii.
Disclosures:
Adam reports being a consultant and speaker for Genentech and Regeneron.
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