New Medicine Could Replace Reading Glasses with Eye Drops (cbsnews.com) 87
New FDA-approved eye drops could replace reading glasses for millions: "It's definitely a life changer"
"A newly approved eye drop hitting the market on Thursday could change the lives of millions of Americans with age-related blurred near vision, a condition affecting mostly people 40 and older," reports CBS News.
"Vuity, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October, would potentially replace reading glasses for some of the 128 million Americans who have trouble seeing close-up." The new medicine takes effect in about 15 minutes, with one drop on each eye providing sharper vision for six to 10 hours, according to the company.... Vuity is the first FDA-approved eye drop to treat age-related blurry near vision, also known as presbyopia. The prescription drug utilizes the eye's natural ability to reduce its pupil size, said Dr. George Waring, the principal investigator for the trial.
"Reducing the pupil size expands the depth of field or the depth of focus, and that allows you to focus at different ranges naturally," he said.
A 30-day supply of the drug will cost about $80 and works best in people 40 to 55 years old, a Vuity spokesperson said. Side effects detected in the three-month trial included headaches and red eyes, the company said.
"Vuity, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October, would potentially replace reading glasses for some of the 128 million Americans who have trouble seeing close-up." The new medicine takes effect in about 15 minutes, with one drop on each eye providing sharper vision for six to 10 hours, according to the company.... Vuity is the first FDA-approved eye drop to treat age-related blurry near vision, also known as presbyopia. The prescription drug utilizes the eye's natural ability to reduce its pupil size, said Dr. George Waring, the principal investigator for the trial.
"Reducing the pupil size expands the depth of field or the depth of focus, and that allows you to focus at different ranges naturally," he said.
A 30-day supply of the drug will cost about $80 and works best in people 40 to 55 years old, a Vuity spokesperson said. Side effects detected in the three-month trial included headaches and red eyes, the company said.
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they calling it "Retinax"?
On a more serious note - I don't find my reading glasses so onerous that I'd want to spend $80/month to replace them with eye drops. Not to mention all the potential issues using these drops might introduce (e.g. poorer vision when driving).
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
I can buy enough reading glasses for $80 to sprinkle them through the house and always have a pair within reach wherever I go.
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It's been a while since pharmaceuticals have actually decreased in price.
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Yes but don't you find the prospect of getting headaches and re-eyes enticing, there might even be some more substantial long term effects to enjoy like brain damage, blindness or worse.
Perception of Attractiveness will kill this (Score:2)
Perception of attractiveness has a lot to do with pupil dilation.
People that will go to the length of buying drops will do so not out of convenience but out of vanity.
They will pick up on the tiny pupils that last 8-10 hours... Better to just quickly put on reading glasses for a few moments.
The reality is everyone over 45 needs reading glasses any way and most are mature enough that they wouldn't care.
The loss of night vision will also be a huge problem.
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
My reading glasses cost $5 and last for years, so $80/mo is a deal killer.
Also, I don't want to wait for 15 minutes for the drops to take effect. When I want to read something, I want to read it immediately.
The drops work by shrinking the pupil to a pinhole, making seeing in dim light very difficult. How long until normal vision returns?
You can get the same effect with heroin, which also causes pupils to constrict. The effect can be reversed with atropine, a neurotoxin extracted from the belladonna nightshade plant.
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"The drops work by shrinking the pupil to a pinhole, making seeing in dim light very difficult. How long until normal vision returns?"
No need, the cops will book you after having seen those eyes.
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Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't find my reading glasses so onerous that I'd want to spend $80/month to replace them with eye drops.
This medicine is obviously targeted at people who are allergic to reading glasses -- like women on a first date... Duh.
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This medicine is obviously targeted at people ... like women on a first date
The medicine makes the pupils shrink. Small pupils are a signal of disintrest, making the person look unattractive. So using it on a date is virtually a guarantee that the relationship will abort rather than developing.
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This medicine is obviously targeted at people who are allergic to reading glasses -- like women on a first date... Duh.
Having tiny pupils and red eyes, OTOH, is a big plus...
Iâ(TM)m in a phase 3 trial (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm in a phase 3 trial (Score:2)
One question I have is what is the shelf life? In the future, if I can get eye drops that don't need refrigeration and that have a shelf life of multiple years, I might keep a container around for those times where glasses are inconvenient: soldering wearing safety goggles, scuba diving, sky diving, or wearing a face mask with reading glasses. I can see an advantage for this anytime I have to wear facial PPE and read at the same time.
Perhaps the active ingredient can be stabilized in the next generation
Re: I'm in a phase 3 trial (Score:2)
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Iâ(TM)m in a phase three trial for the same eye drops but made by a different company. Speaking from experience, they work. Amazingly well. The first time I tried it, I put the drops in and then a few minutes later, Iâ(TM)m thinking what nice fonts the web page is using because they are so readable.
Please wait while I put my eye drops in and wait a few minutes so I can read that...
Yeah, that's way better than just putting some glasses on.
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Another way to see fine print without glasses is to ball up your hand like a fist in front of your face, but not too tight, so you leave a little tunnel that you can see through. You'll notice as you make the hole bigger or smaller that your ability to read fine print gets better as the tunnel approaches a pinhole. Of course the amount of light that gets through, and the number of letters you can see at once, gets smaller as well.
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"Are they calling it "Retinax"?"
But I'm allergic to Retinax, you insensitive clod!
Bit of a letdown (Score:5, Insightful)
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Lawsuit Magnet. (Score:2)
So you trip walking to the bathroom because everything looks dim.
Re: Lawsuit Magnet. (Score:4, Insightful)
When youâ(TM)re over 50 you quickly learn how to walk to the bathroom in the dark.
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But you will still step on Lego from the grandkid(s)...or the Barbie brush.
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Via trial and error
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So you trip walking to the bathroom because everything looks dim.
And if you DO happen to make it to the bathroom, then the dimmest thing will appear when you look in the mirror.
Because of preexisting myopia as well as age-related presbyopia and probably the beginnings of cataracts, my vision really sucks - and I wouldn't use these drops if they paid me to do so.
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Re:Bit of a letdown (Score:5, Informative)
Note that the crystallin aggregation into clumps is caused by electrolyte imbalance (crystallin floats in the lens cells in a colloid; excessive dry eyes changes that and the protein then electrostatically cross-links). I specifically traced my onset to working 16 hour days in contact lenses, beware. Also, after surgery I stopped wearing contact lenses and then with more oxygen to the cornea, its optical characteristics changed for the better. CLs certainly have pros and cons. If one works long hours in startups like me, get glasses instead of CLs.
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If one works long hours in startups like me, get glasses instead of CLs.
Nerd /jk
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There is a way to reduce the hardening. I used one of the n-acetyl carnosine drops products with success, but it took too much time daily (instill drops in AM and PM). It reduced the lens stiffness
Thanks for the imfo, cheching with my ophtalmologist and friend now
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This old guy would like these drops to work, so I can get my youthful 20/13 vision back. Unfortunately, this meta-study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov] dated 2017 says the efficacy of NAC drops is unproven.
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They're reproducing the effect that you get when you use a *bright light*.
If you're getting just a *little* near-sighted with age, a high intensity reading lamp can make it possible to read nearly as effortlessly as you did when you were twenty years younger. The main use case I can see for this is reading in situations where a high intensity lamp isn't practical, or perhaps on backlight screens where you can't set the back light very high.
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I read a hypothesis that one of the reasons for many of us old farts preferring light mode to dark mode on screens, despite being grown up on green/amber-on-black, is just this. More light from the screen makes the pupil smaller and the text easier to read.
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one of the reasons for many of us old farts preferring light mode to dark mode on screens
Even in my 20s I still found light mode way easier to read, and I'm not sure I've ever seen my dark screen friends change their ways even as they aged...
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Same old (Score:2)
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I would market it as "Squint in a Bottle"
And don’t forget it’s close cousin in fabrication “safety squints”.
Multifocal contacts (Score:2)
Multifocal contacts for myopia work in the exact opposite way. Distance eyesight, especially in daytime, is with very constricted pupils. So the smaller diameter of the contact covering just the constricted pupil is designed to correct far-distance vision (like a normal contact for myopia). However, the area of the contact outside of the constricted pupil area does not correct for distance as much. So when you're indoors and reading and looking at near objects, your pupils are very dilated, and the contact
Bright idea (Score:4, Interesting)
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wouldn't making the reading light stronger also reduce pupil size
Yes, it would, but this works in circumstances were you can not control the lighting a all, or if the brighter lights inconvenience people arround you (say your spouse and offspring, or perhaps coworkers).
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The old pupil size reduction trick (Score:5, Interesting)
This has been known for ages in the scuba diving community.
Quite a lot of people dive with masks with a Black silicone seal, but if you have vission troubles (nearsighted or Astigmatism) but is not oh so big, it behooves you to dive with a trasparent seal mask, that way, the extra periperal light forces your pupil to contract, and makes your eyesigh sharper.
If is actually bigger, you need to go for diving with contact lenses or a corrective mask.
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I thought transparent fish were cool, and now transparent seals! What will we find next? Maybe some day we can make these marvelous masks out of a non-animal resource.
There was also a transparent t in eyesight.
I wonder what other transparent things are we missing?
Transparent governments?
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Transparent ink. It makes a printed page look blank, so you can finish reading a boring book much faster.
Expensive! (Score:3)
I could buy a single set of reading glasses for $30, but they are asking $80 a month for this.
I could see this being good for special occasions. Going skiing, scuba diving, going on TV, etc.
Otherwise, not worth it (excluding people with > 100 million US in the bank.)
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I could buy a single set of reading glasses for $30, but they are asking $80 a month for this.
I could see this being good for special occasions. Going skiing, scuba diving, going on TV, etc.
Otherwise, not worth it (excluding people with > 100 million US in the bank.)
My Ophalmologist is even more agressive, he recomended me to go for intraocular lenses to combat presbicia. And he did it unto himself when he got presbicia and started needing special eyeglasses to operate. I decided to waint until if/when i get cataracts.
Having said that, some people (like you) go for reading glases, others go for Bifocals, others (like me) go for 2 sets of glasses, one for general use, other for medium range (which is even more expensive)...
Having said that, is cool to have another tool
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You can get usable reading glasses at Dollar Tree.
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Yes, provided that both eyes need near enough the same strength, and you don't need to correct for astigmatism.
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If you look on-line, you could find reading glasses for a couple-three bucks. I know there's been inflation, but surely not that bad.
Why is there no technology (Score:2)
I'm 40 and the nearest point I can focus is now maybe 10 inches away In most light. Light didn't use to play a part in the past, and obviously I had greater range of focus.
So, I've never ever use glasses or lenses. Sometimes I have to use safety glasses. The feeling those give is sort of like those cats you see on YouTube where people have duct taped their backs. There's all sorts of lens flare and aberration from even fresh out of the pack safety glasses that I get completely disoriented.
That aside, tradi
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So, I've never ever use glasses or lenses. Sometimes I have to use safety glasses. The feeling those give is sort of like those cats you see on YouTube where people have duct taped their backs. There's all sorts of lens flare and aberration from even fresh out of the pack safety glasses that I get completely disoriented.
every time us people who use glasses get a new pair, we experience the same you do. The bigger the lenses, the worse the effects. Then, in a few days (11 tops), we get used to it
So night blindness in a bottle? (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone old enough to have taken photography class in high school with an actual film SLR will remember the depth of field trick. They might also remember that if you have a wide depth of field, you either need a high ISO film or a very long exposure in low-light condition to make up the difference.
For DSLR fans, that means cranking up the electronic gain and/or the exposure.
Your eye can't do either. If your pupils are contracted, yeah you have high depth of field. And probably it "fixes" a little near-sightedness and astigmatism. But you also can't see jack shit in low light and if the drops work as advertised, you won't be able to until they wear off.
What an idiotic medicine. I hope to God the bottle warning label tells the "gee I can fix anything with modern medicine" crowd to not try to drive at night after taking this stuff to save themselves the five seconds of putting on reading glasses.
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It's exactly the same with modern digital interchangeable-lens-cameras.
Depth of field is a function of focal length and f-stop.
You're... really ignorant about cameras, maybe you should choose examples from a subject that you've revisited more recently?
Re: So night blindness in a bottle? (Score:2)
Cupcake it's exactly the same with any camera. It's a basic principle of optics. Newton knew about it.
Light field cameras are a possible exception but I discount it since it's more like taking multiple simultaneous pictures at once.
There are also tricks possible with large format film cameras where a split focus lens is inserted in the path to get two or more simultaneous focal distances in different parts of the image.
But all that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that your eye can't pull any of t
Headaches likely mean eyestrain (Score:2)
Read the prescribing information (Score:2)
If you go to the manufacturer's website and read the prescribing information https://www.rxabbvie.com/pdf/vuity_pi.pdf%20%20 [rxabbvie.com], you can see on page 5, Section 14, Clinical Studies, that the efficacy is actually very modest, 31% vs. 8% in the first trial, and 26% vs. 11% in the second (vuity vs. vehicle; "vehicle" here means placebo drops). While statistically significant, in practice what this means is that maybe at most 1/3 of people who try these drops would expect to receive substantial clinical benefit t
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the risk of infections from constantly using eye drops.
Anecdotal: After my Lasik in 1998, I suffer from Dry Eye, and have been using artificial tears, 3 or more times a day, every day, even (specially) when on the beach scuba diving. The risk of infection because of constantly using eye drops has been greatly exagerated.
6 to 10hrs? Fuck off. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's useless. Turning CBS off would be a much more substantial "life-changer" if this is the shit they report.
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It's not useless. 6 to 10 hours is less than most car or bike trips. If you don't want to buy prescription sunglasses, you could put in a couple drops and put on normal sunglasses. Maybe you need better vision while swimming, and don't want to buy corrective lenses for your goggles.
Some situations don't lend themselves well to having glasses on your face, and these could be much easier than contacts. No worries about forgetting to take them out before bed or losing one down the drain.
Honestly, the hate in t
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It's not useless. 6 to 10 hours is less than most car or bike trips. If you don't want to buy prescription sunglasses, you could put in a couple drops and put on normal sunglasses.
Yeah - live a little! Routinely stick some chemicals in your eyes instead of buying glasses! What could go wrong?
Other top tips: Save on anaesthesia costs and take LSD instead! Don't bother with bus fares - sit on the back fender! Same trick works for trains and ships too!
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None of these is a legitimate comeback to anything I said. There are real upsides to tech like this. Glasses are demonstrably worse in a lot of situations than contact lenses, and sometimes contact lenses aren't going to be practical or available. So this is a fantastic stop gap.
Your amazing strawmen do nothing to argue against that.
I read that as "vulvity" (Score:2)
I guess I either need this stuff or I have a one track mind or both.
Rare cases of retinal detachment has been reported (Score:2)
There's always a catch...
Rare cases of retinal detachment have been reported with other miotics; patients should be advised to seek immediate medical care with sudden onset of vision loss.
Wear glasses or take the risk of going blind. I think I'll stick with glasses.
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Yeah, the potential side effects are the kicker.
I'm really surprised how many of the people who always claim to be professional computer experts are priced out by the $80/m, and think that's expensive.
I'm low paid for the industry and I spend that much just on eggs and milk. And don't miss it!
How about eyedrops with the opposite effect? (Score:2)
Instead of stopping down the eye to f/16 to give you clear vision only in direct sunlight, invent an eyedrop that keeps the eyes dilated. This would allow you to, by moving your head back and forth, isolate and focus on just one clear subject in your field of vision. Bonus points if the drops also give you feathery bokeh for the out-of-focus parts of your visual field. And...amaze your friends with the low-light performance!
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I guess you never had an eye exam [aao.org] where they do just that.
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Eye exam dilation is just for a limited time, though. I'm talking about a dilation analog to this stopping-down medication
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Not new (Score:2)
It's not a new medicine. It's old as the hills. The only thing new is that FDA approved it for a new use. This is not something you would want to use long term, and probably no one knows the consequences of chronic use.
And, if you use it in dim light, it's going to make things seem really dim.
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This is not something you would want to use long term,
Makes a claim
probably no one knows the consequences of chronic use.
Then makes another claim invalidating the first in the very same sentence. Well at least you are efficient.
Dumb idea of the year (Score:2)
Mask (Score:2)
Can face masks can replace covid vaccine :)