Starting Syfovre Early Helps Protect Vision in Geographic Atrophy | ASRS 2025

New data presented today at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting in Long Beach, Calif., showedd that starting treatment with Syfovre (pegcetacoplan) earlier may help patients with geographic atrophy (GA) preserve more vision over time.

Roger A. Goldberg, M.D., MBA, a retina specialist with Bay Area Retina Associates, spoke about the updated results from the OAKS, DERBY and GALE clinical trials. These studies followed patients over four years—two years in the original randomized controlled trials, followed by two years in the GALE open-label extension.

Goldberg said the findings show clear benefits to starting Syfovre earlier.

“We have a better sense of what the treatment impact is over a 48-month period, and we have it in comparison to the cohort of patients who were initially treated with sham for two years and then got crossed over to treatment,” he told MHE.

The earlier-treated group had better outcomes, both in terms of retinal structure and visual function.

For example, those who started Syfovre at the beginning had more retinal tissue preserved and better results on microperimetry testing, which measures visual sensitivity. Patients who waited two years to start treatment showed less benefit, suggesting that delaying therapy may lead to greater vision loss.

The updated findings also looked at the difference between monthly and every-other-month dosing. While monthly injections slightly reduced GA lesion growth more than every-other-month treatment, Goldberg said the advantage may not be significant enough to justify twice as many injections.

“I tend to lean towards every-other-month therapy,” he said. “I think the safety profile looked a little bit better. I think it’s more tolerable for patients over long periods of time.”

This data presents early and consistent treatment with Syfovre, while also highlighting the need to balance effectiveness with patient comfort and safety when choosing a dosing schedule.