Short term real-world effectiveness of faricimab in neovascular age-related macular degeneration patients in the Republic of Korea

To analyze visual and anatomic outcomes of faricimab injection in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) in a real-world setting in Korea. We collected data from nAMD patients who received faricimab injection from 2024 to 2025. The past injection history, and faricimab injection history was obtained. Visual acuity (VA) and central macular thickness (CMT) outcomes for 1, 3, 6, 12 months after initial faricimab injection were compared to baseline, and also compared between sex, different age-groups, and naïve vs. non-naïve groups. A total of 286 patients, 293 eyes from 8 university hospitals were included in this study. VA improved from baseline 58.9 ± 17.1 letters to 60.7 ± 23.5, 61.0 ± 18.1, 59.9 ± 19.3, 60.5 ± 18.2 letters at 1, 3, 6, 12 months respectively (statistically significant at 3 months, p = 0.009), while CMT improved by -60.6 ± 89.0, -55.9 ± 87.3, -46.5 ± 97.5, -70.7 ± 97.8 μm compared to baseline (p < 0.001 at all timepoints). An age group analysis showed that the youngest age group (< 60 years) had superior VA results, while the naïve group showed superior outcomes compared to the non-naïve group. CMT fluctuation showed inverse correlation with visual acuity at 6 months, with lower CMT fluctuation being associated with the young and naïve. Faricimab injection for nAMD, in a real-world setting in the Republic of Korea, showed significant functional and anatomic improvements with superior results in the younger age group and naïve group, suggesting promising effectiveness of a bispecific blockage of VEGF-A and Ang-2 at the initial phases of nAMD.