Inflammation, hypoxia, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and chemical mediators play a critical role in pathological angiogenesis, macular oedema and fibrosis in diabetes. Laser photocoagulation is still the currently approved gold standard for treatment of clinically significant macular oedema and proliferative diabetic retinopathy with strong evidence from large, multicentric, randomized controlled trials. Emerging treatments focus on pharmacologic interventions alone or in combination for improving prognosis. The body of evidence for pharmacologic interventions is growing and...