Avastin and Lucentis are intravitreal injections which are used to treat wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Avastin is not licensed for use in AMD but has a much lower cost and remains the most frequently used medicine for wet AMD in many countries, including the USA.
A recent Cochrane systematic review analysed data from 6 randomised controlled trials which directly compared Avastin (bevacizumab) with Lucentis (ranibizumab), with a aggregate of over 2800 study participants across the studied trials. They found no important difference in efficacy or safety between the two medicines.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26477843
A large clinical trial was also recently published (but not included in the above-mentioned systematic review due to simultaneous publication / reporting of results) in which over 300 patients were randomised to either medicine using the increasingly popular treat & extend regimen, which is designed to tailor injection frequency to disease activity, and reduces the number of visits required for the patient. At 2 years, the effect on vision (visual acuity) and amount of macular swelling (thickness) was equivalent between the two medicines, and safety data (on adverse events) was likewise not significantly different between them.
