By Liz Moyer
Investing.com — Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:) rose 6.95% before being halted on Nasdaq on Friday.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s Syfovre drug used to treat geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to age-related macular degeneration, a type of eye disease. The company said in a statement that Syfovre is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for GA, which it called “a leading cause of blindness that impacts more than one million people in the U.S. and five million people worldwide.”
GA is an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. Cedric Francois, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Apellis said: “GA is a complex disease that the field has spent decades trying to address, so we are humbled and proud to bring forward the first-ever treatment.”
Shares of other drug makers with treatments for forms of macular degeneration were rising on Friday. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:), which makes Eylea, was up 2%, though it was down 0.2% in after-hours trading. Roche Holding AG (OTC:) Participation (SIX:) shares rose 1.4% during the session on Friday. Roche’s Genentech makes Vabysmo, which the FDA approved a little more than a year ago.
