Lucentis (ranibizumab) has been approved by the USFDA last month. This drug is administered by injection directly into the eyeball of patients suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Wet AMD is a chronic condition caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels behind the eye. This condition leads to leaking and/or bleeding within the eye, causing loss of central Vision, more often blindness.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center recently commenced offering of this new treatment for wet AMD that will improve and in some cases restore patients' vision.

Director of the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, Paul Sternberg, M.D. stated that Lucentis is the first drug to show promise of significantly improving visual acuity for these patients.

Other treatments only slowed the progression of the disease. Lucentis, on the other hand, helped improve vision by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels.

"In the past we have told them that there is nothing we can do. Now, we are hopeful and excited that we can tell them there are drugs that might be able to help slow down the deterioration."

"We now can offer a drug that has the potential to improve visual function," added Franco Recchia, M.D., who was the first to administer the drug at Vanderbilt.

Read more at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.