This is one of those little-known things that manages to fly under the radar. I never would have known about it except that I was digging around for hyperosmotic agents and came across a reference to Dehydrex in a 1985 abstract. I googled it and one thing led to another.
Dehydrex has been around for, oh, 25 years or so and has been considered an orphan drug, used for treatment of recurrent corneal erosions. Some years ago (2001, according to the FDA website) clinical trials were started with FDA support from their Orphan Products Development program. I understand the clinicals were very successful and were recently completed and that an NDA will be filed.
Assuming this gets approved - which based on the clinical trial structure and results seems like a safe assumption - I would not be surprised if it turned out to be useful for a wider indication than RCEs.
Those of you who have followed Dr. Holly's work may be interested to know that Dehydrex was a Dextran-based predecessor of Dwelle, which was Dr. Holly's later development continuing down the "high oncotic pressure" route. Hence its popularity - alas, anecdotally, since no study has ever been completed and published on this specifically, that I know of - in treatment of RCEs.
1 comment:
Thanks for looking into this issue, Rebecca. Dr. Gary Foulkes in an article in _Ophthalmology Review_ said that Dehydrex seemed to work well for dry eye as well as epithelial basement membrane dystrophy. So, like you, I would not be surprised if the drops find a loyal following.
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