Another Possible Dry Eye Medication

In each of the previous two months I’ve written about new dry eye medications, Prolacria and RX-10045, that may receive approval in late 2010, thus I was not looking to write about another dry eye medication, however I write about new developments as I come across them so here it is .  In a recent study naltrexone hydrochloride, as an eye drop, restored corneal sensitivity and normalized tear production in diabetic rats.  Interestingly, the effect occured within an hour of administration and lasted for days.

Naltrexone hydrochloride or NTX, as it is known, is currently used in treating alcohol dependence. Low dose naltrexone (LDN) has some popular off label uses as well for auto immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia to name a few.

Studies using NTX to treat dry eye syndrome in humans can not be far behind.  It is also expect that NTX will also be studied to see if it can reverse the effects of diabetic retinopathy.