EYLEA 8 mg: Shaping the Future of Your Clinical Practice

At the Controversies in Ophthalmology conference (Seville, Spain, April 4-5 2025) retina specialist Dr. Patricia Udaondo, of La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital, Valencia, Spain, outlined how the introduction of EYLEA (aflibercept) 8 mg has allowed her to change her clinic’s workflow by reducing treatment burden, and facilitating simpler, more flexible administration (Figure 1).

In the Bayer symposium panel discussion, Udaondo noted that from the PULSAR and PHOTON studies of EYLEA 8 mg, “we see that for every 10 patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), eight will have injections every 12 weeks; six of these 10 patients will have treatment every 16 weeks [Figure 2], and four of these 10 patients will have a treatment every 20 weeks.” With diabetic macular edema (DME) patients, “nine of 10 patients had an interval of 12 weeks; seven of 10 patients can be treated every 16 weeks [Figure 3], and half of the patients can be effectively managed with injections every 20 weeks.”

As she sees these results translated to the real world, Udaondo said that EYLEA 8 mg is transforming disease control in nAMD and DME. And already, she is making changes to her clinical practice as the treatment significantly reduces treatment burden, freeing up time and resources that benefit both physicians and patients.

Speaking to The Ophthalmologist, Udaondo explained she has two kinds of nAMD and DME patients. For the “majority of those patients who used to be ‘frequent flyers,’ i.e., those who need more frequent injections, I can now give a fixed dose of EYLEA 8 mg and extend them to at least 12 weeks,” she says. For new patients and patients that can be extended longer, “we do an OCT scan every time the patient comes in for the injection and analyse it, and then decide whether to extend the patient or not.” She continued, “I have found that the majority of the patients can be extended very fast; in both pre-treated and naive patients, I feel very comfortable extending the intervals because I know that most of the patients will be stable.” Previously, she noted, this was more difficult because she had to extend every two weeks and fewer patients could be extended. “So, EYLEA 8 mg really makes a difference in the daily clinical practice.”

The EYLEA 8 mg pre-filled syringe (PFS) has brought further benefits in terms of physician confidence and patient comfort. “It's very important to be sure about the doses,” she explained. “In the past, we had some concerns about the exact volume of drug that we were injecting; if the patient was not doing so well, we wondered if this could be one of the reasons.” Now, however, it takes only 10 seconds to prepare the pre-filled syringe, which gives “a very precise and accurate fixed dose, and is very easy to use. You just have to push, twist, and inject,” she said. In the Bayer symposium panel discussion, she explained further: “When you have a very long list of injections to do and the PFS is ready to use, you don't really need to look at what the doses are because it’s so precise. This to me is the most reliable syringe.”

 In addition, EYLEA 8 mg and the pre-filled syringe are making a positive mark on the environment and on waste management practices. In patients with neovascular AMD and DME, Udaondo pointed to a study from the Netherlands, where EYLEA 8mg's reduced injection regimen required fewer patient trips to the clinic and therefore led to respective reduction in the drug’s carbon footprint of 35.9 percent and 43.5 percent compared to aflibercept 2 mg (Figure 4).¹ Moreover, EYLEA 8 mg’s blister and folder box is 40 percent smaller than that of aflibercept 2 mg, meaning less waste and less space required for storage in the clinic.^2,3 As well as being more environmentally friendly, these drug efficacy and packaging advantages can lead to cost savings for both patients and practitioners.

Summing up her experience of using the treatment and the PFS so far, Udaondo told The Ophthalmologist, “In truth I didn’t believe at first that EYLEA 8 mg could really make such an impact in my clinical practice.” “But,” she added, “it has.”

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