Roche Pharma enters ophthalmology segment

Hyderabad: Roche Pharma India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered healthcare company Roche, on Tuesday announced its foray into the Ophthalmology space with the official launch of Vabysmo (faricimab), an antibody injection for the treatment of two causes of vision loss.

According to Roche, more than 75 million patients globally and seven million patients in India suffer from retinal vision loss, wherein India is home to one-third of the blind population of the world. Furthermore, in India, Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) cases stands at around 3.30 lakh.

Vabysmo, an injectable eye medicine was launched earlier this year in the Indian market. The drug is manufactured in Switzerland.

Bhavesh Shah from Roche Pharma India, present virtually from Gujarat for the launch, said that the pharma major has adopted three-point strategy for commercialisation of the product which includes creating awareness about their product, collaboration to drive diagnosis, and specialistsreferring Vabysmo.