Eyeworld Daily News

EW SHOW DAILY 18 ASCRS News Today Saturday, May 6, 2017 by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Staff Writer Seph Jensen, CEO, TearLab, San Diego, announced the company's new generation diagnostic platform —TearLab Discovery—which he said is first going to focus on testing for inflammatory dry eye. The first test card will include osmolarity, MMP- 9, and IL-1Ra, the latter two being inflammation markers highly asso- ciated with dry eye disease. Other ocular markers, as well as systemic markers, are future possibilities for this technology as well. This device has already achieved the CE mark for one of its markers, and TearLab plans to launch it at the 2018 AS- CRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress, Mr. Jensen said. Finally, Joe Boorady, OD, CEO, TearScience, Morrisville, North Car- olina, highlighted LipiFlow, which since its 2011 approval has treated more than 175,000 people with mei- bomian gland blockage leading to dry eyes. Dr. Boorady said meibum expression can be done manually, but it takes chair time and can be painful to the patient. LipiFlow, on the other hand, uses heat to melt the meibum and combines pulses for expression that is not painful to the patient, he explained. Dr. Boorady Other afternoon content featured myopia, the role of the "mega-practice," and Masters of Industry D uring the second half of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS) meeting, the spotlight turned onto dry eye. Edward Holland, MD, Cincin- nati, led the session by providing statistics about the prevalence of dry eye—344 million diagnosed world- wide and 20–30 million in the U.S. He said, however, the number of people with dry eye is only going to increase as the size of the older pop- ulation living longer also increases. In addition, physicians are seeing younger patients with lifestyle-re- lated dry eye, such as contact lens wear, refractive surgery, and screen time. All the while, the number of ophthalmologists is expected to decrease. On the other hand, there has been significant innovation in diag- nosis and treatment of dry eye, Dr. Holland said, naming the products of several companies that have been brought to the market to better serve in diagnostics and treatment. "Lots of things have happened in the last decade that have certainly made us better clinicians, and we know this market is just going to explode," Dr. Holland said. Aziz Mottiwala, vice president of marketing, Allergan, Dublin, Ireland, stepped up to discuss the company's recently Food and Drug Administration-approved TrueTear. This is the first neurostimulation device in the eyecare field; it's drug- free and provides patients the oppor- tunity to produce tears on demand. Targeting the trigeminal nerve, TrueTear uses an electrical pulse to produce a physiologic response that results in complete tear production with aqueous, mucin, and proteins. Amir Shojael, PhD, vice pres- ident of global development and product strategy lead, Shire, Lexing- ton, Massachusetts, discussed Xiidra (lifitegrast), which he said is the first and only approved product in the U.S. to treat signs and symptoms of dry eye disease and is a new class LFA-1 antagonist. As for what's new, Dr. Shojael said Shire recently an- nounced a licensing agreement with Parion Sciences (Durham, North Carolina) for its epithelial sodium channel inhibitor compound that's currently in Phase 2 trials. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (Mumbai, India) has only been in the ophthalmic sphere for 2 years, said Jerry St. Peter, vice president and head of ophthalmic business. During this timeframe on the dry eye front, Sun Pharma has complet- ed some clinical studies of OTX-101, which Mr. St. Peter described as a novel aqueous nanomicellar formu- lation of cyclosporine A in a clear, isotonic ophthalmic solution with a neutral pH. OIS@ASCRS spotlight on dry eye ASCRS•ASOA News Today Watch ASCRS•ASOA News Today in many Los Angeles hotels for the latest meeting highlights Hotel Channel Number Omni 61 Westin Bonaventure 82 LA Hotel 1 JW Marriott + Ritz Carlton at Convention Center 72 Sheraton Grand 80 Marriott Courtyard LA LIVE 57 Residence Inn 57 Millennium Biltmore Hotel 87 Dr. Holland, in an OIS spotlight on dry eye, describes current prevalence of the disease and says the number of dry eye patients is only going to go up. continued on page 20

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