glaucoma drops

Allergan's Latisse is a repackaged version of its Lumigan glaucoma drug. Many of us taking glaucoma eye drops would love to be able to stop using them due to the side effects. I find it disturbing that Allergan hopes to earn $500 million per year in revenue from selling this glaucoma drug as a means to lengthen eye lashes for cosmetic purposes. Sure, there are some individuals who have a genuine need for such a medication, but in order to reach their $500 million sales target, Allergan is going to have to sell a lot of this drug to average people without a genuine medicine need for it.

Correct instillation of eye drops is crucial for successful treatment of eye disease. Many patients have difficulties instilling eye drops, especially patients with loss of fixation, who cannot see the tip of the bottle. These patients may turn to harmful techniques, such as touching the dropper tip to the eye, or wasteful ones, such as feeling the sensation of drops hitting the eye or lower lid.¹ Non-compliance may become an issue as well, resulting from a combination of poor drop administration and frustration. The frustration stems from an inability to see the bottle tip.

We describe a new method of drop instillation which increases the accuracy with which eye drops are dispensed, thereby decreasing the incidence of harmful techniques, and possibly increasing compliance.