Industry News — Clinical Updates
VA Avastin Policy Update
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has reinstated bevacizumab (Avastin) as an option to treat wet AMD after determining that the recent adverse events were not related to the drug itself. The VA will permit one patient dose per manufacturer's vial of Avastin and will not allow multiple aliquot compounding.
ASRS is unaware of any evidence indicating irregularity in the manufacturing of Avastin or of an industry-wide phenomenon. Since no uniform federal guidelines for compounding medications exist, ASRS has created an online library of compounding pharmacies' completed safety and quality-control questionnaires to assist members in selecting a pharmacy. If your pharmacy is not listed, please feel free to ask them to complete the ASRS questionnaire.
Please report any adverse events, side-effects or product quality problems related to the use of repackaged intravitreal injections of Avastin to the FDA's MedWatch Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program and to ASRS at jill.blim@asrs.org.
Posted November 3, 2011