New sight loss jab to aid more than 300,000

A drug that prevents sight loss is to be made available to thousands of people on the NHS, just a week after it was approved by the medicines regulator.

The Faricimab (Vabysmo) eye injection, made by Roche, could help up to 300,000 patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, and 28,000 with diabetic macular oedema, said the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

Data suggest some patients can now wait up to 16 weeks between doses, compared with just eight weeks for aflibercept, a current treatment.