Novel FDA-Approved Eye Drops May Replace Reading Glasses

Jan, 2022 - By WMR

New FDA-approved eye drops, Vuity can treat age-related presbyopia providing an option to reading glasses are ready for commercial use.

The new eye drops, Vuity is the first and only FDA-approved eye drops for treating developmental blurry near vision and is now available in the US. The new eye drops offer a promising option to reading glasses for around 128 million people who are affected by presbyopia in the US. According to the company, Allergan, the medicine starts showing its effects in 15 minutes, with single drop on each eye and provides clearer vision for 6 to 10 hours.

Presbyopia is a common condition and a normal part of the aging process that affects the near vision. However, the new eye drop, Vuity treats this condition with promising outcomes. The new prescription medicine is administered once every day to the eyes. The active component, pilocarpine in the eye drop is designed for stimulating the eye to shrink the size of the pupil for a sharper vision. In the Phase III human trial of this medication, conducted on 750 subjects in the age group of 40-55 affected by presbyopia, it was found that the subjects who used Vuity could read additional three or more lines on a vision chart of optometrist in low light, binocular Distance Corrected Near Visual Acuity (DCNVA), high contrast, without missing more than one line of Corrected Distance Visual Acuity (CDVA) on 30^th day compared to the placebo.

Furthermore, the side effects of this new medication include eye redness and headaches were observed in less than 5 % of the subjects in the trial. None of the subjects experience any severe harmful effects of the eye drops. According to the manufacturer, Allergan the drops enhance the near and intermediate vision without affecting distance vision. These drops are less likely to be useful after the age of 65.