Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said surveys suggest its Eylea treatment for macular degeneration is capturing 60 percent of its sales from patients that have abandoned Roche Holding AG’s Lucentis and Avastin medicines. Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer said on Tuesday Eylea has pronounced advantages over Lucentis - Roche’s older treatment for the leading cause of blindness among the elderly - including a 45 percent lower annual cost and the need for roughly only half as many injections into the eye. Regeneron shares have more than doubled since Eylea was approved by U.S. regulators on November 18 for the dangerous “wet” form of macular degeneration. More than 200,000 cases of the sight-robbing condition are diagnosed in the United States each year.
