Objective: This study aimed to evaluate characteristics of industry and public research payments for age-related macular degeneration studies.
Materials and methods: Studies involving "age-related macular degeneration" or "AMD" from 2015 to 2021 were extracted from the Open Payments Database and the National Eye Institute RePORTER tool and compared to each other.
Results: From 2015 to 2021, 620 ophthalmologists received $178,394,734.09 in industry research payments with a 76.9% increase from 2015 to 2020 and a subsequent 40.7% decrease in 2021. There were 84 female industry funding recipients (13.7%) compared to 528 (86.3%) male recipients (P < 0.001). For public funding, 119 ophthalmologists received $157,319,575.00 with a 31.0% increase from 2015 to 2021. Among 119 principal investigators, 37 (31.1%) were women and 82 (68.9%) were men (P = 0.05).
Conclusion: Industry-funded and publicly funded age-related macular degeneration-related research payments overall increased from 2015 to 2021. Funding distribution by sex trended towards male recipients. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 2024;55:xx-xx.].