Non-penetrating surgical options could alter the glaucoma treatment paradigm, making the current gold standard of trabeculectomy one of several possibilities for treating the disease. Landmark studies, including the Collaborative Initial Glaucoma Treatment Study and the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study, have shown that filtration surgery has one of the best rates of significant IOP reduction among surgical glaucoma treatments. In addition, certain glaucoma subsets, such as angle-closure glaucoma and secondary glaucoma, are most effectively treated with filtration surgery.

The FDA has approved Ista Pharmaceuticals’ bepotastine besilate ophthalmic solution 1.5% as a twice-daily eye drop for treating ocular itching due to allergic conjunctivitis. Bepreve (bepotastine besilate ophthalmic solution 1.5%) is a non-sedating, highly selective histamine receptor antagonist that stabilizes mast cells and suppresses the migration of eosinophils through inflamed tissue.

The pharmaceutical company ISTA Pharmaceuticals won unanimous support from the FDA committee for the approval of Bepreve eye drops for the treatment of itchy eyes. The eye drops are designed to treat patients aged 2 years and more with itchy eyes due to allergies. The vote by the FDA was 7-0 as it believed that ISTA had proved the effectiveness and safety of Berpreve and the eye medication will be sold by prescription only.

ISTA Pharmaceuticals is planning to ask the FDA to approve a change to the label of its bromfenac 0.09% ophthalmic solution. It has obtaining positive preliminary phase III results in a confirmatory clinical study of once-daily bromfenac (Xibrom QD) for the treatment of inflammation and pain after cataract surgery. The topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compound currently is labeled for twice-daily use beginning 24 hours after such surgeries.

Doctors are treating 12 children suffering from eye cancer at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London by a new procedure that is allowing doctors to target tumors with chemotherapy drugs, while avoiding healthy tissues. The procedure involves administering chemotherapy drugs via a catheter passed through a patient’s blood vessels from an incision in the groin to the ophthalmic artery. The technique, called intra-arterial chemotherapy, is at least as effective as standard treatments for retinoblastoma and may even lead to better outcomes.