UK dry eye market... someone's noticing us....

I was reminded today of a comic one of my siblings reproduced artistically for one of our parents on their birthday when I was little. I don't remember the picture but the caption read, "If you feel like no one cares you're alive, try missing a few car payments."

Well, UK dry eye patients, if you feel like no one cares about you, (grin) at least the stock pickers do. If your doctor doesn't seem to, find another doctor... thankfully more and more doctors who give a fig for dry eye really are emerging.

PharmaPoint: Dry Eye Syndrome - UK Drug Forecast and MarketAnalysis to 2022

By Reportlinker

Published: Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2013 - 7:55 am

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Summary
GlobalData has released its new Country report, "PharmaPoint: Dry Eye Syndrome - UK Drug Forecast and Market Analysis to 2022". Dry eye syndrome (DES), or keratoconjunctivitis sicca, is a multifactorial disease of the eye caused by dryness, decreased tear production, or increased tear film evaporation. DES, which is often referred to simply as dry eye, is the most prevalent form of ocular discomfort and irritation. The most common symptoms of DES are ocular irritation and discomfort, foreign body sensation, fatigue, and visual disturbances, which interfere with daily activities. In the elderly population, it is the most common reason for seeking eye care, and this is expected to increase exponentially with an aging demographic.
The DES market in the UK is projected to grow substantially during the forecast period. During the forecast period, the primary growth driver of the DES market in the UK will be the launch of the EU's first prescription product for DES, as well as the rapidly increasing population of DES patients.
Scope
Overview of the DES including epidemiology, etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, pathology and treatment guidelines as well as an overview on the competitive landscape. - Detailed information on the key drugs in the UK including product description, safety and efficacy profiles as well as a SWOT analysis. - Sales forecast for the top drugs in the UK from 2012-2022. - Analysis of the impact of key events as well the drivers and restraints affecting the UK DES market.

Newsblurb: Try laying off the i-whatever....

Thank you, thank you Dr. Feinerman for drawing attention to this issue, which in my opinion is a HUGE contributing factor to the epidemic of dry eye in the young. I'm thinking especially of all the youngsters who were practically born with a device in their hand.

Technology increasing dry eyes condition in younger people

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Do your eyes feel irritated, dry or itchy at the end of the day? Your computer and smart phone may be to blame. Eye doctors say thanks to technology, what used to be a problem for the old is now becoming an epidemic among the young.
An estimated 3.2 million women and 1.7 million men older than 50 suffer from dry eye symptoms each year. Now ophthalmologists say they're seeing a new generation of younger patients walk through their office doors.
"In the past, 90 percent of our patients were over the age of 50 with dry eye symptoms," said Newport Beach ophthalmologist Dr. Gregg Feinerman. "Now 50 percent of our patients are 20- to 30-year-olds."
Experts say these new dry eye cases aren't due to eye disease. but rather addiction to technology.
"People are staring at their iPhones, and their laptops and not blinking, which is causing evaporation of the tear film," said Feinerman. "They're staring at their devices for 12-hour periods and not taking breaks. and that's causing the burning and the tearing and blurry vision."

Particularly appreciated this note... have been doling out this advice for a long time but don't often see it mentioned elsewhere:

Doctor Rachel Bishop with the National Eye Institute says even something as simple as the position of your computer monitor could be to blame.
"I advise them to try to position the computer so it's a little bit lower, their eyes don't have to be open quite so wide to be looking at the screen comfortably," said Bishop.

And I LOVE seeing attention drawn to the pitfalls of shopping for drops on your own! If you don't already know the dangers of (a) vasoconstrictors and (b) benzalkonium, you CERTAINLY wouldn't learn from the labels - especially now with the masses of 'combo' drops - antihistamine and/or vasoconstrictor which might have something about lubrication on the label, leading you to think it will be OK for someone with dry eye. It's absolutely terrible and an area of labeling where the FDA has badly fallen down on the job.

And if you feel symptoms use artificial tears regularly to lubricate the eyes and reduce discomfort.
"Look for ones that say for lubrication, not other reasons, not looking to get the red out, not looking for allergy symptoms," said Bishop.
While occasional dry eye is probably not serious, more severe cases can lead to complications.
If artificial tears and taking breaks aren't clearing up your symptoms, it may be time to consult your eye doctor.

Abstract: Emerging MGD treatments

Emerging treatment options for meibomian gland dysfunction.

Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is one of the most common diseases observed in clinics; it influences a great number of people, and is the leading cause of evaporative dry eye. Given the increased recognition of the importance of MGD, a great amount of attention has been paid to therapies targeting this condition. The traditional treatments of MGD consist of warm compresses and lid hygiene for removing an obstructed meibum, as well as antibiotics and anti-inflammatory agents to improve the quality of the meibum. However, each of these treatments has a different shortcoming and the treatment of MGD remains challenging. Despite the numerous possible treatment options for MGD, it is still difficult to obtain complete relief of signs and symptoms. This review focuses on current emerging treatment options for MGD including intraductal meibomian gland probing, emulsion eye drops containing lipids, the LipiFlow® thermal pulsation system, N-acetyl-cysteine, azithromycin, oral supplementation with omega-3 essential fatty acids, and cyclosporine A.

Clin Ophthalmol. 2013;7:1797-1803. Epub 2013 Sep 9.

Qiao J, Yan X.

Source

Department of Ophthalmology, Peking University First Hospital, Key Laboratory of vision Loss and Restoration, Ministry of Education, Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Abstract: "Bringing comfort to the masses"

Jimminy. When's the last time you saw a study with something like that in the title?

Rather long on repetitiveness and short of actual information, this one, but it's kind of comforting to know somebody studying something cares about how drops FEEL.

Bringing comfort to the masses: A novel evaluation ofcomfort agent solution properties.

Ocular comfort agents are molecules that relieve ocular discomfort by augmenting characteristics of the tear film to stabilize and retain tear volume and lubricate the ocular surface. While a number of clinical comparisons between ocular comfort agent solutions are available, very little work has been done correlating the properties of specific comfort agents (species, molecular weight, and water retention) and solution properties (concentration, viscosity, zero shear viscosity, and surface tension) to the performance and effectiveness of comfort agent solutions. In this work, comfort-promoting properties related strongly to comfort agent concentration and molecular weight, the first objective demonstration of this relationship across diverse comfort agent species and molecular weights. The comfort agents with the greatest comfort property contributions (independent of specific molecular weight and concentration considerations) were hyaluronic acid (HA), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), respectively. The observed, empirical relationships between comfort property contribution and comfort agent species, solution properties, comfort agent molecular weight, and solution concentration was used to develop novel comfort agent index values. The comfort agent index values provided much insight and understanding into the results of experimental studies and/or clinical trials and offer potential resolution to numerous conflicting reports within the literature by accounting for the difference in comfort agent performance due to molecular weight and concentration of comfort agents. The index values provide the first objective, experimental validation and explanation of numerous general trends suggested by clinical data.

Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2013 Aug 30. pii: S1367-0484(13)00088-X. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2013.07.004. [Epub ahead of print]

White CJ, Thomas CR, Byrne ME.

Source

Biomimetic & Biohybrid Materials, Biomedical Devices, & Drug Delivery Laboratories, Department of Chemical Engineering, Auburn University, 212 Ross Hall, Auburn, AL 36849, United States.