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Noemi Lois, Jonathan Cook, Ariel Wang, Stephen Aldington, Hema Mistry, Mandy Maredza, Danny McAuley, Tariq Aslam, Clare Bailey, Victor Chong, Faruque Ghanchi, Peter Scanlon, Sobha Sivaprasad, David Steel, Caroline Styles, Augusto Azuara-Blanco, Lindsay Prior & Norman Waugh.

Noemi Lois ^1,*, Jonathan Cook ², Ariel Wang ², Stephen Aldington ³, Hema Mistry ⁴, Mandy Maredza ⁴, Danny McAuley ^1,5, Tariq Aslam ⁶, Clare Bailey ⁷, Victor Chong ⁸, Faruque Ghanchi ⁹, Peter Scanlon ³, Sobha Sivaprasad ¹⁰, David Steel ^11,12, Caroline Styles ¹³, Augusto Azuara-Blanco ¹⁴, Lindsay Prior ¹⁴, Norman Waugh ⁴

¹ The Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK
² Centre for Statistics in Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
³ Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Gloucester, UK
⁴ Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
⁵ The Regional Intensive Care Unit, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, UK
⁶ The Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
⁷ Bristol Eye Hospital, Bristol, UK
⁸ Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
⁹ Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford, UK
¹⁰ National Institute for Health Research Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, London, UK
¹¹ Sunderland Eye Infirmary, Sunderland, UK
¹² Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
¹³ Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline, UK
¹⁴ Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK
^* Corresponding author Email: n.lois@qub.ac.uk

Declared competing interests of authors: Jonathan Cook was a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Efficient Trial Designs Board (between 2014 and 2016), NIHR HTA End of Life Care and Add-on Studies Board member (between 2014 and 2016) and member of a NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Programme regional advisory committee (South Central/South East and Central) between 2015 and 2019. Stephen Aldington reports grants from the NIHR HTA programme for other work during the conduct of the study. Danny McAuley is a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) committees and is the Director of the MRC and NIHR EME programmes. Tariq Aslam reports grants from Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany) and Théa Pharmaceuticals Limited (Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK). Tariq Aslam also reports payment for lectures from Bayer, Théa Pharmaceuticals Limited, Novartis International AG (Basel, Switzerland) and Allergan (Dublin, Ireland); and advisory board fees from Novartis International AG, Bayer, Théa Pharmaceuticals, Allergan and Alimera Sciences, Inc. (Alpharette, GA, USA). Clare Bailey sat on advisory boards for Novartis International AG, Bayer and Roche Holding AG (Basel, Switzerland), and reports lecture fees from Bayer, Novartis International AG, Roche Holding AG, Allergan and Alimera Sciences, Inc. Victor Chong is a part-time employee of Boehringer Ingelheim International GmBH (Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany); the study was performed outwith Boehringer Ingelheim, and Boehringer Ingelheim did not endorse the study or its result. Faruque Ganchi reports consulting fees or paid advisory work from Alimera Sciences, Inc., Allergan, Bayer, Novartis International AG and Roche Holding AG; lecture fees or honoraria: Alimera Sciences, Inc., Allergan, Bayer, Novartis International AG and Roche Holding AG; payment for lectures from Alimera Sciences, Inc., Allergan, Bayer and Novartis International AG; and reports expenses from Allergan, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chengdu List Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Novartis International AG, PanOptica (Mount Arlington, NJ, USA) and Roche Holding AG. Peter Scanlon reports grants and support to the institution from the NIHR HTA programme (project reference number 13/142/04). He also reports money to the institution from Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for employment, grants to the institution outside the submitted work from Bayer, Allergan, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis International AG, and grants for being a co-applicant on Innovate UK Grant Application. He also reports payment for various lectures and expenses. Sobha Sivaprasad is a member of HTA committee, received research grants from and attended advisory boards of Novartis International AG, Bayer, Allergan, Gyroscope (London, UK), Roche, Oxurion (Leuven, Belgium), Apellis Pharmaceuticals (Waltham, MA, USA), Boehringer Ingelheim, Heidelberg Engineering Inc. (Franklin, MA, USA) and Optos (Dunfermline, UK). David Steel has been a consultant to Gyroscope, Roche and Alcon (Geneva, Switzerland), and has received research funding from Bayer and Alcon. Augusto Azuara-Blanco is a member of the NIHR HTA Prioritisation Committee.