Oct 17 (Reuters) - Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Friday that a head-to-head study showed that its Eylea treatment for diabetic macular edema created significantly greater improvement in visual acuity compared with Genentech's Avastin and Lucentis.

Eylea is Regeneron's flagship drug and the news of the positive results from the National Institutes of Health sponsored study drove shares up 6 percent to $362.50 in early pre-market trading.

Eylea patients also received one fewer treatment on average and fewer patients received macular laser treatments, the company said in a statement.

It also said that there were fewer cardiac events as well as arterial thromboembolic events compared with the drugs from Genentech, a unit of Roche Holding AG.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)