Health Canada Approves Treatment for Vision Loss

Approximately 27,000 Canadians suffer from RVO every year making RVO the second-most common cause of vision loss due to retinal vascular disease after diabetic retinopathy.

Health Canada has approved Lucentis (ranibizumab) as a treatment for vision loss resulting from retinal vein occlusion (RVO). Lucentis becomes the first approved treatment of its class in Canada for this debilitating condition.

Approximately 27,000 Canadians suffer from RVO every year making RVO the second-most common cause of vision loss due to retinal vascular disease after diabetic retinopathy.

"The approval of Lucentis for patients afflicted by RVO is an important development that meets a large unmet need," said Dr. Alan Cruess, Head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. "RVO is like having a stroke in the eye and as such its impact can be profound, causing sudden and severe vision los