Anti-angiogenic treatment for exudative age-related macular degeneration: new strategies are underway

Exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in elderly people in the western world. Recent developments in the field yielded vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) targeted strategies that caused a revolution in the treatment of AMD. Although the therapy of the disease has dramatically improved, the treatment depends on repetitive and invasive intravitreal injections of neutralizing antibodies or antibody-based constructs that have the risk of side effects and are still a major burden for the patient. Learning from the field of oncology, it is clear that new therapeutic opportunities for AMD are finding their way into the clinic. The rapidly developing market of new angiostatic agents will allow better treatments for exudative AMD in the near future. This review summarizes the opportunities and challenges of this field of research.