AAO 2025: Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS, shares GA results from the GATHER2 extension trial

This year's American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting is being held in Orlando, Florida. Ahead of the meeting, Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS, spoke with Sheryl Stevenson, Executive Editor of the Eye Care Network, about results from the GATHER2 extension trial. The extension trial, like the Phase 3 GATHER2 trial, evaluated avacincaptad pegol (ACP) in the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

GATHER2 met its primary endpoint at 1 year. In the open-label extension, patients were given ACP monthly for 18 months, whether they previously received ACP or sham. All patients had an opportunity to enroll in the extension, Dr Khanani said.

"The key results are the efficacy and the safety data," he said. "There's no sham control, so we compared it to a projected sham. When you look at patients who were on ACP before the open-label extension...that resulted in 40.5% reduction of GA lesion growth [in that group], compared to projected sham." Patients who had previously been in the sham arm for 2 years, after being enrolled in the extension and receiving ACP, experienced a 37.1% reduction in lesion growth. Dr Khanani noted that the benefits of ACP and impact on lesion growth reduction seemed to start early. The findings, he said, indicate that earlier treatment with ACP will lead to improved performance over time.

Watch the full video to learn more about the clinical implications of this research.