One-on-one with David Parke of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Much was made of a National Eye Institute study in April that compared two Genentech Inc. drugs in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness. The so-called CATT — Comparison of Treatment Trials — study of 1,185 patients showed that Avastin, which costs about $50 per injection, is as effective in treating wet AMD as Lucentis, which costs about $2,000 per injection. The big difference is that Lucentis is approved for wet AMD; Avastin is not. But Dr. David Parke II, CEO of the San Francisco-based American Academy of Ophthalmology, isn’t looking at the data as an either-or proposition.Parke speaks to San Francisco Business Times biotech reporter Ron Leuty about the CATT study, eye diseases and his organization.