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Associated Press The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved a new drug designed to treat the leading cause of blindness in older Americans. Age-related macular degeneration destroys the light-sensitive tissue in the center of the retina, causing vision to fail gradually from the center outward. The new drug, Macugen, attacks the rapidly progressing "wet" type of AMD, in which new blood vessels form behind the retina and then leak, damaging the macula. That form affects an estimated 1.6 million Americans over 50, and about 6.3 million are expected to be affected by 2030 as the baby boomers age. Macugen inhibits...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A drug that attacks a major form of elderly blindness passed a key hurdle Friday as the government's scientific advisers decided that it poses no significant risks. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration did not vote formally whether Eyetech Pharmaceuticals' drug, Macugen, should be approved, but eye doctors on the panel said they were impressed by the research. The FDA will consider those opinions as it evaluates the product. Macugen is aimed at treating one type of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among older Americans. The disease steals sight from the center of...

Eyetech Pharmaceuticals' drug to treat the leading cause of blindness in the elderly appeared to move closer to a broad government approval yesterday after an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration spoke favorably about it. The advisory panel was not asked to vote on whether the drug, Macugen, should be approved as a treatment for age-related macular degeneration. But committee members ruled unanimously that Eyetech had provided the F.D.A. with enough information to evaluate the drug. The panel members also did not seem to raise any serious new issues that would block approval. "It appears to me very...