Texas Retina Associates’ David Callanan, MD, presented the results of a clinical trial on a promising new treatment for chronic posterior segment uveitis at the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) 2019 Annual Meeting held recently in Chicago.

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2018, fluocinolone acetonide intravitreal implant, sold under the brand name YUTIQ®, is a sustained-released micro-implant designed to provide consistent dosing and one-time administration for the treatment of chronic, non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye. Dr. Callanan served as an investigator for the randomized Phase 3 trial of YUTIQ, which enrolled 129 patients in 16 centers in the United States, including Texas Retina Associates, as well as 17 centers outside the United States.

Non-infectious posterior segment uveitis is a chronic, non-infectious inflammatory disease that affects the posterior segment of the eye and often involves the retina. It produces swelling and destroys eye tissues, which can lead to severe vision loss and blindness. In fact, chronic posterior segment uveitis is currently the third leading cause of blindness in the United States. Patients with the disease have typically been treated with either local steroid injections or systemic steroids, which can have limited duration of effect or lead to serious side effects. Some posterior uveitis patients also need to advance to systemic immune suppressants or biologics, which can also have severe side effects, including an increased risk of cancer.

Dr. Callanan’s talk titled, “Cumulative Recurrences with the Fluocinolone Acetonide Intravitreal (FAi) Insert for Non-Infectious Posterior Uveitis (NIPU): 36-Month Results” explored the results of this three-year clinical trial which included the following:

  • At the 36-month follow up, 43% of the FAi treated eyes did not have a recurrence versus only 7% of the sham treated eyes.
  • The median time to the first recurrence was 1,051 days for YUTIQ (95% CI 686, 1,125) and 95 days for sham-treated eyes (95% CI 71, 117).
  • Multiple (>1) recurrences were observed in 21.8% of YUTIQ treated eyes compared to 73.7% of sham treated eyes.
  • Only 19.5% of YUTIQ treated eyes needed the assistance of adjunctive intraocular/periocular injection medication for inflammation compared to 69.0% for sham treated eyes.

Texas Retina Associates remains committed to conducting ongoing research that will improve care for our patients, offering access to promising new treatments for a variety of retina conditions, including age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, diabetic retinopathy and uveitis.

Click here to learn more about our clinical research work and team.