ReviewPharmaceutics2025
The 20th Anniversary of Pegaptanib (MacugenTM), the First Approved Aptamer Medicine: History, Recent Advances and Future Prospects of Aptamers in Therapy.
Review in Pharmaceutics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Aptamers in Ocular Disease Therapy and Drug Delivery: Current Progress and Future Opportunities.Current therapeutic research, clinical and experimental · 2026Review
- Molecular Engineering of Aptamers for Glioblastoma Therapy: From Simple Antagonists to AI-Driven Approaches, a Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- The impact of systemic long-term medications for the development of age-related macular degeneration.Acta ophthalmologica · 2026Article
- Aptamer-Based Delivery Systems for VEGF and NGF Modulation in Ocular Therapies.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Review
- Anti-vascular endothelial growth factors in retinal and choroidal diseases - Present landscape.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2026Review
- Interpretable prediction and generation of ASC-speck aptamers using multiscale deep biological learning models.Bioinformatics advances · 2026Article
- Target, silence, replace: a review on RNA-based drugs in modern medicine.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Spiegelmer Aptamers: Innovative Approach in Breast Cancer.Breast cancer : basic and clinical research · 2026Review
- Aptamers as emerging tools for plant disease management: From biosensing to active modulation.iScience · 2025Review
- Aptamer as a therapeutic agent for dengue infections.Virology journal · 2025Review
- Aptamer-Nanoconjugates as Potential Theranostics in Major Neuro-Oncological and Neurodegenerative Disorders.Pharmaceutics · 2025Review
- Overcoming translational barriers in RNA-protein docking: enhancing computational accuracy for targeted drug discovery.Future medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In addition to classic small-molecule drugs and modern protein-based biologics, an intriguing class of medicines is the therapeutic oligonucleotides. Most approved drugs in this category are antisense oligomers or those acting via RNA interference, both of which use base hybridization. Aptamers, also known as chemical antibodies form a smaller, yet equally interesting group of oligonucleotides that can recognize a wide range of molecular targets. Despite their high potential, only two aptamers have been approved to date, pegaptanib (MacugenTM) and avacincaptad pegol (IzervayTM), both for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of many eye diseases, pegaptanib emerged as the first anti-VEGF agent and was used in various indications, further inspiring the development of other anti-VEGF therapies. In this review, we summarize the history of the first approved aptamer medicine, pegaptanib. We describe its chemistry and track its development from the earliest stages to the preclinical phase, clinical trials, and eventual regulatory approval. Additionally, we evaluate its position among other therapeutic agents and provide a comprehensive overview of pegaptanib's efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness, comparing these aspects with those of monoclonal antibodies with similar indications, bevacizumab and ranibizumab.
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Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.