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Abstract
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects predominantly individuals during the sixth decade of life and is the commonest cause of visual impairment and irreversible blindness in the Western world. There is no medical treatment for AMD and only a very small number of subjects with late stage disease are amenable to a palliative and minimally effective laser photocoagulation therapy. The molecular mechanism underling AMD is not fully understood and is the major obstacle in the development of aetiologic and prophylactic treatments. However, the genes responsible for certain rare retinal degenerative diseases (with pathological features similar to those of AMD) have been discovered. This helps in the understanding of the pathogenetic mechanism of AMD and provides a source of potential therapeutic targets. Furthermore, the new ocular drug delivery systems that provide a means to overcome the systemic adverse effects of potentially effective drugs and allow the use of those drugs with narrow therapeutic indexes, will greatly facilitate the development of pharmacological agents for the treatment of AMD. The new AMD treatment modalities under development include surgery, photodynamic therapy, pharmacological therapy and radiation. Among these, photodynamic therapy for the treatment of the choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) in late stage AMD is in Phase III of clinical development.