Biomarkers and Surrogate Endpoints in Drug Development: A European Regulatory View

To give a European regulatory overview of the requirements on and the use of biomarkers or surrogate endpoints in the development of drugs for ocular disease.

Definitions, methods to validate new markers, and circumstances where surrogate endpoints can be appropriate are summarized.

The key endpoints that have been used in registration studies so far are based on visual acuity, signs, and symptoms, or on surrogate endpoints. In some ocular conditions, established outcome measures such as those based on visual acuity or visual field are not feasible (as with slowly progressing diseases), or lack relevance (e.g., when central visual acuity may be preserved even though the patient is legally blind owing to a severely restricted visual field, or vice versa).

There are several ocular conditions for which there is an unmet medical need. In some of these conditions, surrogate endpoints as well as new clinical endpoints are needed to help speed up patient access to new medicines. Interaction with European regulators through the pathway specific for the development of biomarkers or novel methods is encouraged.