Breaking News About Treatment of World's Leading Cause of Adult Blindness to be Published Next Week

Breaking News About Treatment of World's Leading Cause of Adult Blindness to be Published Next Week

November 01, 2007

    BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 1 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- First
study to investigate the protective effect of a
lipid-lowering agent on diabetic eye disease to be
published on-line in Lancet, Tuesday, 6th November 2007  

    Diabetic eye disease (called diabetic retinopathy) is
the leading cause of vision loss in adults - affecting
about 25 million people worldwide. It occurs when diabetes
affects the blood vessels at the back of the eye damaging
the retina and restricting blood flow. This destructive
process occurs in about 74 per cent of people who have
diabetes for 10 years or more.  

    Currently, the only widely used treatment for this
condition is laser therapy. However, laser treatment often
reduces peripheral vision as well as causing other side
effects. Nor does it restore sight. 
 
    Important new results to be published in Lancet. 
 
    Now researchers in Australia, New Zealand and Finland
have investigated the effects of a widely available
lipid-lowering agent, fenofibrate, on the use of laser
therapy in more than 9000 men and women with diabetes.  

    The Fenofibrate Intervention and Event Lowering in
Diabetes (FIELD) Trial is the largest study of a
lipid-lowering agent ever conducted in adult diabetics.
  
    The results of an analysis of the effects of
fenofibrate on diabetic retinopathy and a sub-study of its
effects on the progression of diabetic retinopathy in more
than 1000 patients will be published on-line in the Lancet.
Here is how you can get the news as it breaks:  

    For a copy of the press release and details of Webcast,
go and register on: http://www.fieldstudy.info/reg2 on
November 7th 


    For more information, please contact:

    Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
     Neil E. Hirsch
     Manager, U.S. Corporate Communications
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

    Solvay pharmaceuticals B.V.
     Puck Bossert
     Pharmacom
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]