Q&A: Rishi Singh, MD, discusses real-world outcomes of patients with DME treated with faricimab

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At the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) annual meeting, the Eye Care Network spoke with Rishi Singh, MD, vice president and CMO, Cleveland Clinic Martin North and South Hospitals. At the meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, Singh presented a poster highlighting the real-world durability of faricimab in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME), using data from the IRIS Registry.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: Can you share a little bit about what you are presenting here at the ARVO 2025 meeting?

Rishi Singh, MD: I'm presenting my poster on faricimab real-world analysis of the IRIS database. This poster was presented today, and really showed a lot of great durability of faricimab in the real-world setting of the IRIS registry. The IRIS registry enrolled patients who had received faricimab in the past few years, and almost 1,200 eyes were analyzed for the poster that I presented here. We found that in both the previously-treated eyes and the treatment-naive eyes, that there was a improvement in the annualized number of injections they received. We also saw a stability of those patients who were previously treated in regards to the visual acuity, and we saw an improvement in visual acuity in those patients who were previously treatment-naive. At 2 years, we also saw a significant reduction in the retinal thickness of almost 60 microns from baseline. And always the safety has been remained very top notch and without any significant intraocular inflammation or any other serious conditions. This, again, is validated in a real-world population faricimab having a really effective way of decreasing the treatment frequency in a patient population without expensing vision at the same time.

OT: As we look forward, what might this research mean for ophthalmology and how ophthalmologists approach treatment?

Singh: One of the things that this poster really highlights is that durable agents are going to change how our patients are receiving therapy. As you know, many of our patients are getting therapy very, very frequently, almost unable to keep up with the regimens, and unfortunately, lose vision as a result. Because of durable agents, like faricimab in this bi-specific molecule, more patients are going to maintain their vision and also get anatomical benefit and decrease numbers of injections over their lifetime.