Exciting products on the horizon for dry eye therapy

The world of ocular surface disease has drawn great attention over the last few years, due mainly to the large expansion of diagnostic technologies to help decipher the dry eye code.Tear osmolarity (TearLab), MMP-9 detection (InflammaDry, RPS), Lipi-View and LipiView II with dynamic meibomian imaging (TearScience), in-office allergy skin testing (Doctors Allergy) and Sjö testing for early disease stage antibody detection (Bausch + Lomb) are just a few of the tools in the ever-expanding diagnostic armamentarium of dry eye disease. Nevertheless, our therapeutic approach to dry eye has been fairly limited in growth relative to this diagnostic expansion. Current mainstay treatments have been excellent thus far but limited to Restasis (cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion 0.05%, Allergan) for long-term anti-inflammatory control with minimal to no side effects, short-term pulsed topical steroid therapy such as Lotemax (loteprednol 0.5% gel, Bausch + Lomb), punctal plugs, autologous serum drops (inconvenient for patients), advanced artificial tear formulations such as Refresh Optive Advanced (Allergan), Systane Balance (Alcon) and Soothe XP (Bausch + Lomb), and long-term omega therapy such as HydroEye (ScienceBased Health) with its unique omega gamma-linolenic acid anti-inflammatory activity or PRN’s Dry Eye Omega therapy. The good news is that many products are in the pipeline and may be available to the premium surgeon as soon as the fourth quarter this year.