Schuster, Alexander K. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6304-3599
Leisle, Lilia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3987-4269
Picker, Nils http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5328-4332
Bubendorfer-Vorwerk, Hanne
Lewis, Philip
Hahn, Philipp
Wasem, Jürgen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9653-168X
Finger, Robert P. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4253-7597
Funding for this research was provided by:
Apellis Germany GmbH
Article History
Received: 14 December 2023
Accepted: 26 January 2024
First Online: 22 February 2024
Declarations
:
: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE disclosures forms. Alexander K. Schuster, Robert P. Finger and Jürgen Wasem received consultancy fees for results publication and advice on real-world evidence generation from Apellis Germany GmbH. Alexander K. Schuster also received consultancy fees from Abbvie for advice on real-world evidence generation and he received research funding from Heidelberg Engineering, Bayer, Santen and Novartis. Philipp Hahn participated in this study as a staff member of IPAM; Nils Picker and Lilia Leisle participated in this study as staff members of Cytel; the work of IPAM and Cytel in this study was funded by Apellis Germany GmbH. Philip Lewis and Hanne Bubendorfer-Vorwerk are employees of Apellis Germany GmbH. Robert P. Finger changed affiliations during the study from the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, to the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Mannheim GmbH, Mannheim, Germany.
: Research and analysis were conducted on anonymized data provided by AOK PLUS under formal agreement, and in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. No research was conducted on human subjects. In accordance with German laws (§ 75 of Book 10 of the German Code of Social Law [SGB X]), the use of such data is not subject to ethics committee approval, because conclusions about individual patients are excluded and only aggregated results are presented. No patient authorization was required because solely deidentified data were analyzed.