Reproxalap: ‘The anti-inflammatory drug for the next decade’
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Reproxalap, an inhibitor to reactive aldehyde species, may be a critical tool in the future of treating a number of ocular inflammatory conditions, according to a presentation at Cataract Surgery: Telling It Like It Is.
“We learned about steroid inflammatory pathways in medical school, oncogenic acid, cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase and all the great things that steroids do in such a multifactorial way,” John D. Sheppard, MD, president of Virginia Eye Consultants, said in his presentation. “It turns out, there are parallel inflammatory pathways that may be just as important.”
Sheppard said reactive aldehyde species can create many issues within inflamed tissue, including those of the anterior segment and ocular surface.
Reproxalap (Aldeyra Therapeutics) has been studied across numerous trials, from phase 2a to phase 3, comprising more than 1,200 patients. Sheppard said reproxalap has consistently shown rapid anti-inflammatory benefit with a good tolerability and safety profile.
In a study that included patients with noninfectious anterior uveitis, Sheppard said the drug had no topical adverse effects, no steroidogenic pressure effects and inhibited the anterior segment inflammatory process similar to prednisolone.
In dry eye disease studies, patients who received reproxalap saw improvements in visual analog scale of dry eye by day 8 and maintained that improvement through day 85 of treatment. By week 12, patients experienced improvement in ocular dryness, discomfort, Ocular Surface Disease Index and other endpoints.
Importantly, Sheppard said patients experience rapid improvement, including significant improvement over placebo, by hour 4 and hour 24.
Reproxalap also showed a benefit in patients with conjunctival allergies, including for ocular redness and ocular itching.
“In anterior segment inflammation, dry eye and allergies, we see an excellent side effect profile, a new mechanism of action [that] may be separate or synergistic with existing anti-inflammatory drugs, and outstanding patient acceptance,” Sheppard said. “This will be the anti-inflammatory drug for the next decade to come.”
Collapse
Sheppard JD. Reproxalap: A novel treatment for anterior segment inflammatory disease. Presented at: Cataract Surgery: Telling It Like It Is; June 9-13, 2021; Amelia Island, Florida.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts