The drug, whose proposed brand name is Arxxant, reduced the risk of sustained moderate vision loss by 41% when compared to placebo in patients with moderate to severe, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (DR).
Vision loss occurred in 6.1% of patients treated with ruboxistaurin compared to 10.2% of patients treated with placebo. The pooled analysis of the trials was presented at the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions in Washington.
“These data are exciting because they show that ruboxistaurin has the potential to be the first oral therapy to specifically reduce the risk of vision loss caused by diabetic retinopathy,” said Dr Lloyd Paul Aiello, lead investigator of the study and associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School.