FDA: Repackaged Avastin blinds eye patients in Florida

Doses of the Genentech Inc. cancer drug Avastin repackaged at a Florida pharmacy for patients with an eye disease caused blindness and other serious eye infections, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The news could boost the contention of South San Francisco-based Genentech that Avastin should not be broken down into smaller doses for off-label use against wet age-related macular degeneration. The drug, though designed to fight various forms of cancer, is the most-prescribed treatment for that eye disease because its mechanism of action is the same as a more-expensive Genentech drug, Lucentis.