Lucentis versus avastin - Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for age-related macular degeneration patients?

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment in the developed world. The recently introduced anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) intravitreal injections of Ranibizumab (Lucentis) and Bevacizumab (Avastin) generated a heated academic argument: on the one hand Lucentis is the only drug that was proven effective and relatively safe in large prospective double-blinded studies, albeit this drug is expensive and might cost up to $1000 per single injection. On the other hand, Avastin is widely used worldwide as a low cost alternative for Lucentis, with an estimated cost of about $120 per injection, although its efficacy and side effects were investigated only in smaller retrospective studies. The ophthalmic community still lacks definite information regarding which is the preferred drug, and awaits the results of a large prospective study comparing the two drugs.