“Lifestyle” Drop Claims to Correct Presbyopia – for Six Hours

Presbyopia Therapies LLC is developing an eyedrop that can correct presbyopia for six hours or so before it wears off, co-founder Jim McCollum told OIS@ASCRS 2016 attendees in the “What’s the Future?” session.

Liquid Vision is a patented combination of aceclidine and tropicamide, the former a miotic agent, the latter a cyclopegic. “What we’re trying to do is somewhat counterintuitive, almost opposing forces,” McCollum said. “You’re trying to have a miotic effect without distance blur and without ciliary spasm. We have discovered a proprietary means of modulating pupillary miosis and ciliary accommodation, achieving strong miosis in sync with pinhole filtered accommodation.” The proprietary concentration of the two agents hits the “sweet spot” to achieve this effect, he said. In a video, Lon Eudaly, OD, of Independence, MO, reported on his experience with Liquid Vision as a planopresbyope. He said his average pupil size is 1.6–1.7 mm with Liquid Vision drops versus 4 mm without the drops.

McCollum said the binocular drug takes effect 20–30 minutes after instillation. “It’s really meant to be a prescription lifestyle drug that’s self-pay,” he said. Liquid Vision is in Phase IIB trials currently, and the company hopes to have data completed by the Academy of Ophthalmology meeting in 2017, he said.

Audience polling revealed an almost split on the potential of Liquid Vision: 46% said patients would pay out of pocket to use and 54% said they would not. Only 38% of audience respondents rated the company’s outlook as bright versus 62% taking a dim view.

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