While the intravitreal injection of anti‐VEGF provides benefits to many patients suffering from DME and PDR (Nguyen et al, 2009; Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research N et al, 2015; Sivaprasad et al, 2017), some patients are non‐ or poor responders to the current anti‐VEGF therapy (Channa et al, 2014; Ashraf et al, 2016). Here, VEGFA is linked to diabetic retinopathy.