Australian Government - Department of Health and Ageing

Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC)

Application 1039

Photodynamic therapy with Verteporfin for macular degeneration

Application No.

1039

Application NamePhotodynamic therapy with Verteporfin for macular degeneration
Advisory PanelProfessor Peter Phelan
(Chair and MSAC member)
Dr Terri Jackson
(MSAC member)
Associate Professor Ian Favilla
(co-opted member)
Associate Professor Frank Fisher
(Consumers' Health Forum of Australia nominee)
Dr Alex Harper
(co-opted member)
Associate Professor Justin O'Day
(Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists nominee)
Associate Professor Denis Stark
(Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists nominee)
Date Received by MSAC Secretariat6 September 2000
Stage 1 - EligibilityEligible
Stage 2 - AssessmentCompleted
Stage 3 - Formulation of Advice to the MinisterThis assessment was considered by the MSAC at the 24 August 2001 meeting.

The MSAC has reviewed the evidence relating to photodynamic therapy with Verteporfin for macular degeneration (MD) in terms of clinical need, safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The MSAC recommends that public funding for this therapy should only be supported for patients with predominantly classic (>50% classic) subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation secondary to MD, a small minority of MD cases. For this sub-group of MD patients, there is some evidence that the therapy may retard the rate of visual loss in the short term. As there is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of photodynamic therapy to support funding for this treatment outside the indications outlined above, the Committee also recommends that public funding should only be supported where arrangements are in place to ensure, as far as possible, that the indications in the previous paragraph are met.
Stage 4 - DecisionEndorsed by the Minister for Health and Ageing 17 September 2001
Stage 5 - ImplementationImplemented