Copyright © 2014: Manila Retina Specialists All Rights Reserved
Avastin has been used in hundreds of thousands of injections all over the world and has saved countless eyes from blindness. Its first use in the human eye was proven safe by Dr Philip Rosenfeld in mid 2000s. It has since been in numerous trials like the CATT, which shows similar efficacy and safety with Lucentis. Unfortunately, few outbreaks have occured in Florida, and now recently in Gujarat India. The ones in Florida were apparently due to faulty compounding. The incident in Gujarat is still under investigation and we don't know if its due to handling problem, or a fake batch?
Until the investigation is over, we will still be using Avastin, fully informing patients of these possibilities, but doing all we can to ensure all safety precautions are observed. We believe the benefit of Avastin still outweighs the risks, and even France and Italy allows its use on its citizens.
As of 3/2016, India has lifted this alert, following an expert panel report showed that several international publications have shown that it is safe and effective for intraocular use.