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Dry eye treatment shows promise
IRVINE, Calif. — A new treatment for dry eye achieved positive preliminary results in a phase 2b study, according to a press release.
Ista Pharmaceuticals said a 3% dose of its drug ecabet sodium “demonstrated a strong trend in efficacy” in its ability to address two objective signs of dry eye syndrome: corneal staining and blink rate.
Researchers enrolled 162 patients in a U.S. phase 2b trial and randomly assigned them to receive placebo or ecabet sodium 3% or 3.9% four times a day for 90 days. Outcome measures included corneal and conjunctival staining, tear film breakup time, blink rate and ocular symptoms.
In the preliminary results, no efficacy trends versus placebo were observed with respect to the higher dose, Ista said in the release.