Lucentis improves sight after 7 days in 2 studies

NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The optical drug Lucentis proved effective in two late-stage studies in improving the vision of patients with retinal vein occlusion as early as the seventh day of treatment, Genentech said on Sunday.

Genentech, a unit of Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX), on Sunday published the full results of two Phase 3 studies of Lucentis as a treatment of retinal vein occlusion, or RVO, a common cause of vision loss.

Genentech in July had reported that the two studies demonstrated that Lucentis was significantly better than a placebo in treating RVO

Patients in the studies, called Bravo and Cruise, who received monthly injections of Lucentis had, on average, a "statistically significant improvement in their vision," Hal Barron, Genentech's chief medical officer, said in a statement.

Patients started to experience improvement as early as seven days after their first injection, Genentech reported. The results are based on six months of study.

Retinal vein occlusion is a common cause of vision loss that occurs when blood flow through a retinal vein becomes blocked, causing fluid to build up and vision to cloud.

According to the Bravo study, 55 percent of 134 patients with RVO given a 0.3 milligram dose of Lucentis showed improvement on a vision test of 15 or more letters. Sixty-one percent of the 131 patients who received a 0.5 mg dose saw a similar improvement, Genentech reported.

According to the results of the Cruise study, 46 percent of those given the smaller dose had an improvement on a vision test of 15 letters, compared to 48 percent of patients on the higher dose. In this study, 132 patients were given the 0.3 mg dose, while 130 took the higher dose. (Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Leslie Adler)