Eyedrops That Temporarily Correct Vision Get FDA Approval

An Israeli startup has just received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its eye drops that are capable of temporarily correcting vision.

The QLOSI eye drops, developed by Orasis Pharmaceuticals, improve farsightedness by constricting the pupil, resulting in a “pinhole effect” and increasing depth of field and ability to focus on nearby objects.

The prescription eye drops can be used twice a day, and their effects of improving near vision can last up to eight hours without impacting distance or night vision. 

The FDA approval is based on results from clinical trials that evaluated the safety and efficacy of the eyedrops on more than 600 patients.

Presbyopia, or farsightedness, is the result of the natural aging process, and there are almost two billion people living with it globally. They experience blurred vision when performing daily tasks like reading a book, a restaurant menu or messages on a smartphone.

It cannot be prevented or reversed, and it continues to progress gradually. All existing treatment options are either inconvenient, like reading glasses and contact lenses, or invasive, like refractive surgery that changes the shape of your cornea and lens implants, which replace the lens in each eye with a synthetic one.

“The FDA approval of QLOSI marks a tremendous milestone for Orasis as we continue our mission to provide a flexible treatment option for the millions of people in the U.S. living with presbyopia, or blurry near vision,” said Elad Kedar, CEO of Orasis Pharmaceuticals.

“I am grateful to the Orasis team, our strategic partners, clinical investigators, and patients who participated in our clinical trials, all of whom made this achievement possible.”