Is the recent hype around Presbyopia correcting miracle drug true?

Can millions of people wearing reading glasses throw them away?

There is a lot of buzz with recent FDA approval of VIZZ eye drops (aceclidine 1.44%) by LENZ Therapeutics

We had witnessed same excitement when VUITY eye drops ( 1.25% pilocarpine) by @Allergan-AbbVie company was approved by FDA in 2021 claiming as the first drug ever for allowing near vision improvement with daily instillation of drops.

In India , Entod Pharmaceuticals had launched PRESVUE eye drops last year but the availability and usage by ophthalmologists is still not well established.

So are the claims of miracle drug for reading glass true?

Firstly , no drug can CURE presbyopia . The natural lens in our eye starts loosing its elasticity physiologically after 40- 45 yrs of age, leading to need of reading glasses . These drops cannot make your lens elastic again but they work on mechanism of constricting your pupil to create a pinhole effect, increasing depth of focus allowing some improvement in near vision till the affect of drug lasts . Eye optics are complex and multifactorial with lot of variation in different eyes leading to unpredictable response in patients.

The pharmacological component and concentration of the drug has to hit the sweet spot of not affecting the distant vision and not cause any side effects like headaches, distance blurring , irritation , night driving issues.. which VIZZ is claiming to.

These group of drugs are not really NEW as ophthalmologists across the globe have been using 2%pilocarpine for many decades to treat angle closure glaucoma. Interestingly, these patients never told us that they don’t need reading glasses anymore

The long-term safety and efficacy of Presvu,Vizz and Vuity eye drops , particularly in large-scale use, will remain a subject of ongoing discussion and scrutiny till long term clinical data establishes pros & cons.

Is it actually a health tech innovation and breakthrough… time will tell !Meanwhile the pharma company stocks are going higher n higher