Switching to Eylea HD extends injection intervals in DME patients | ASRS 2026

Early data from a real-world analysis finds that patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) who switched from aflibercept 2 mg to Eylea HD (aflibercept) 8 mg had their injection intervals extended by two weeks with visual acuity maintained, according to data released at the annual meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) being held July 16 through July 18, 2026, in Montreal.

“But the greatest visual benefit was achieved among treatment-naïve patients, who gained nine letters or two lines of vision,” said during his presentation.

Developed by Regeneron and Bayer AG, Eylea HD is approved for patients with neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration, macular edema, diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion.

In the ILLUMIN-8 trial, researchers wanted to describe the changes in injection interval and visual acuity in patients with diabetic macular edema who had been switched from aflibercept 2 mg to Eylea HD 8 mg, as well as for those patients who began therapy with Eylea HD.

The ILLUMIN-8 study was a retrospective analysis using the Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) registry. The IRIS Registry is an eye disease clinical registry developed by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. It contains data on more than 788 million patient visits from more than 15,000 ophthalmologists.

Data were collected from Aug. 18, 2023, to June 30, 2024. Visual acuity and injection intervals at the last observed Eylea HD injection at less than 12 weeks after the index date.

Researchers analyzed data from 392 treatment-naïve eyes and 2,280 switched eyes with diabetic macular edema. Patients were followed for a median of 56 weeks for treatment-naïve patients and 57 weeks for switched patients.

“We see that those who presented with ETDRS [Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study] letters of 65 or worse had a gain of about two lines of vision or nine ETFRS letters,” Klufas said. ETDRS is a standard visual acuity eye chart for measuring vision in both clinical research and eye clinics.

The analysis found that patients who had switched to Eylea HD gained two weeks between injections. Visual acuity for these patients was maintained during follow-up. About 30% of patients achieved 12 weeks or a longer dosing interval in this study, Klufas said.

He said the ILLUMIN-8 study is continuing to assess durability over time injection as well as visual outcomes as more real-world data accumulates within IRIS. “With DME, we know that vision typically continues to improve with less treatment burden overall,” he said. “I’d also be interested in looking at a neovascular AMD because we’re doing this sort of more extended treatment protocol; those eyes tend to slip a little bit more with the extended durability as well.”

One limitation, Klufas said, was that this data were obtained from electronic medical records, which may not have captured patients’ complete medical history. Another is that the best-corrected visual acuity data may not have been consistently available.