In the industrialized world, AMD is the major cause of uncorrectable vision loss in the elderly affecting over 2.5 million people in Canada and more than 25 million people in the USA. There are 2 million with vision loss due to advanced AMD and more than 600,000 that are legally blind due to the disease in North America. Age‐related macular degeneration is generally a disease of the elderly. The worldwide incidence of the disease grows from 1 in 10 people over the age of 60 to more than 1 in 4 people over the age of 75. According to the AMD Alliance, macular degeneration is more common than Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Breast Cancer and Prostate cancer combined.