Allergan has received FDA approval for the first therapy to treat senile hyperopia. The drug in the form of eye drops is safe and can significantly improve vision for up to six hours.
Effective as soon as 15 minutes after application, these eye drops use a specialized formula that combines pilocarpine, a recognized eye therapeutic, with Allergan propriety pHast technology to relieve blurred vision. During the GEMINI1 and GEMINI 2 phase III clinical trials, patients who self-administered VUITY once a day were found to have up to six hours of visual improvement by day 30.
«I am particularly encouraged by VUITY’s rapid onset of action and duration of effectiveness for improving near and intermediate vision without compromising distance vision with one drop a day, especially for people with mild to moderate presbyopia,» said Dr. George O. Waring IV, M.D., FACS, principal investigator and medical director of the Waring`s Eye Institute in South Carolina.
In addition, patients showed no serious side effects in any of the studies, with the most common side effects being headache and eye redness, which were seen in less than 5% of study participants. It was found that visual acuity had no negative effect on distance vision either during or after use.
Presbyopia is a common progressive condition that manifests itself in increased difficulty in focusing vision on nearby objects. This is caused by the gradual loss of flexibility of the lens, a transparent protein tissue that changes shape to focus light on the retina and allows you to distinguish between near and far objects. The disease usually worsens by about age 65.
The disease affects millions of adults over the age of 40. Despite this, the only treatment options so far have been the methods commonly used to correct poor vision, such as glasses, bifocal glasses, and contact lenses.