Promising Safety Results With Investigational Dry Eye Dro

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Promising Safety Results With Investigational Dry Eye Drop

Last week, Aldeyra Therapeutics announced that reproxalap, its investigational new drug for patients with dry eye, achieved positive topline results in a 12-month safety trial that involved 447 patients with dry eye disease. (Last July, the company announced that its clinical trials had shown positive results in Schirmer test scores, relieving ocular redness, and other symptomatic improvements of dry eye.) In addition to proving that the molecule was safe from treatment-related serious adverse events, reproxalap was also shown to be statistically superior to the vehicle in improving distance visual acuity from baseline.

Visual acuity was improved in both treatment groups, with reproxolap being statistically superior (P = .018) to that seen in patients treated with the vehicle. In the reproxolap group, logMAR improved by approximately 37% (P < .0001), or from 0.13 (Snellen 20/27) to 0.08 (Snellen 20/24).

My Two Cents

Although the data are statistically significant, this doesn’t appear to be a life-changing improvement in distance acuity—nothing that would likely make the drop worth prescribing based on visual improvement alone. What does excite me, however, is that every day, patients ask me if there’s a dry eye treatment that can also improve vision, and now we have a study that shows it’s possible!

CAN YOU RELATE

As I was sitting in the airport waiting to board my flight to this year’s SECO meeting, it got me thinking about what excites me most about traveling to conferences. For me, it’s always the networking and seeing old friends from near and far. My staff, on the other hand, gets excited about all the conference swag (stuff we all get) that I bring back to the office with me.

This year, I had my staff compile a “power ranking” of their favorite items that are given out at meetings from the various exhibitors. Below is their list of top five swag items.

1. Water bottles
2. Oversized t-shirts
3. A good pen—notably one with a stylus
4. Cups/koozies
5. Bags—especially drawstring canvas and large shopping bags

A quality pen is my personal favorite; however, on more than one occasion, I have scored a sweatshirt or a nice t-shirt. These top-tier swag options typically end up in the possession of my staff or my fiancé. Not a bad advertisement for the companies that spend big bucks for the best swag!

What are your favorite items you bring home from optometry conferences?

OUTSIDE THE LANE

New Words to Work Into Your Vocabulary

On February 28th, Dictionary.com announced that it is adding 313 new terms and 130 new definitions to its website to keep up with the constantly changing English language. Approximately four times each year, the online language resource adds new terms and definitions, thereby allowing us a glimpse into what is happening in the world around us.

Some of the notable new entries this quarter include:

Hellscape (noun): A place or time that is hopeless, unbearable, or irredeemable. [Example sentence: Dr. Davidson was lost in a hellscape during what seemed like an endless refraction.]

Rage farming (noun): The tactic of intentionally provoking political opponents, typically by posting inflammatory content on social media, in order to elicit angry responses and thus high engagement or widespread exposure for the original poster. [Example sentence: Ignore that post on Facebook, that person is just rage farming some reactions.]

Petfluencer (noun): A person who gains a large following on social media by posting entertaining images or videos of their cat, dog, or other pet. [Example sentence: Josh’s fiancé is trying her hardest to be a petfluencer by constantly posting pictures and videos of their new puppy Bronner doing literally anything.]

Woke (adjective): Disparaging. Of or relating to a liberal progressive orthodoxy, especially promoting inclusive policies or ideologies that welcome or embrace ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities. [No example sentence given.]