Specialist details features of successful presbyopia drop
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Therapeutic drops are an emerging treatment for patients with presbyopia, with at least eight companies developing products.
Jennifer M. Loh, MD, said at the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium that the goal for any presbyopia treatment is to increase a patient’s range of vision at near without affecting distance vision. She said most therapies are focused on miotic drops.
“Presbyopia is an age-related change,” Loh said. “By age 40, accommodative ability really drops off. Because of that, we have to make it up with something else, which we could call the pinhole effect. So, if our lens can’t accommodate anymore, we’ve learned that by making the pupil or the aperture smaller, we can increase that depth of focus, extend it and allow that patient to see better at near and make up for what they lost.”
Loh said the attributes for a “best in class” presbyopia drop include:
- efficacy, specifically near vision improvement;
- maintenance of distance vision, particularly at night, which is one of the biggest issues when using miotic drops;
- safety and tolerability because headaches can be an issue;
- durability because the longer the effect lasts, the better;
- rapid onset, which should be within 30 minutes;
- convenience because daily drops are preferred to ones that need to be administered more often; and
- tunable pupil modulation, which is the ability to tailor pupil size for each patient.
Loh said the emergence of presbyopia drops should be exciting for patients.
“We can have them experience the benefits of reducing the need for reading glasses prior to undergoing surgery,” she said. “This can really be used as a bridge to help patients in that 40- to 60-year-old range before they get to lens-based surgery.”
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Loh JM. New therapeutic options for presbyopia. Presented at: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium; Aug. 26-29, 2021; Amelia Island, Florida.
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