First FDA-Approved Eye Drop to Treat Age-Related Presbyopia
Prescriptions for a new eye drop to cure presbyopia or age-related hazy nearsightedness are now available over the counter across the United States. According to a statement released on Thursday by pharmacy manufacturer Allergan, the medicine, named VUITY, is the first and only prescription eye drop for treating the illness.
“We are glad to be able to deliver the very first medicine to consumers sooner than planned for the Millions and millions of people who may benefit from it,” said Jag Dosanjh, senior vice president of medical therapeutics at Allergan, an AbbVie company. “Our dedication to developing vision correction is reflected in this key invention in age-related eye health, which extends our leading array of medicines for eye care practitioners and their patients.”
What is Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is a condition in which you have trouble paying attention and concentrating on objects close to you. It’s not strictly a medical issue, but it is a normal part of aging. However, based on how your vision evolves over time, presbyopia can negatively influence the quality of life if you discover it.
The FDA approved Vuity to cure presbyopia in late October 2021. This is the first drug that has been approved to treat this illness.
What is Vuity?
Vuity is a prescription eye drop that is used to cure presbyopia. It includes a special kind of pilocarpine, an anticholinergic drug. It arrives in a 5 mL bottle and has a concentration of 1.25 percent. It is only accessible with a recommendation from an eye specialist and not over-the-counter (OTC).
How does Vuity help in presbyopia treatment?
The rigidity in the optics of the eyes causes presbyopia. The lenses sit right below your pupils, making it difficult to see things properly up close due to their rigidity. According to the company, Vuity works by momentarily shrinking your pupils so that you can focus purely on items that are close to you.
Vuity starts typically working within 15 minutes of being injected into the eyes. It has a working time of up to 6 hours. However, the medicine may take up to a month to reach its full potential.
How does it work?
With two-phase investigations, Vuity validated its effectiveness in presbyopia. Compared to vehicle medicine, a considerably higher percentage of individuals treated with Vuity was able to read three more lines on a reading table three hours after therapy at day 30 without compromising their visual acuity. In the Gemini 1 experiment, Vuity and fake eye drop numbers were 31% and 8%, respectively. In Gemini 2, Vuity and vehicle both scored 26 percent, compared to 11 percent for Vuity. In addition, the two trials found a difference between the two treatment arms to the six-hour point.
VUITY is a reformulated version of pilocarpine, a well-known eye care medication that is designed primarily to cure age-related hazy near vision. It’s made with patented pHast technology, which helps VUITY to make adjustments to the tear film’s physiologic pH. However, the clinical importance of this research remained unknown because it was done on a simulated tear film. VUITY improves close and intermediate vision while retaining far vision by utilizing the eye’s innate capacity to lower pupil size. See the IDTechEx report on Synthetic Biology 2018 for more information.