Content about blindness

BASEL, Switzerland — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug made by Alcon, the drug maker said.

Medication nonadherence costs the U.S. healthcare system about $290 billion per year, according to New England Healthcare Institute. That big and scary number — the kind whose sheer enormity can make one’s eyes glaze over — is now even bigger.


PHOENIX — A division of specialty pharmacy provider The Apothecary Shops has become the exclusive distributor of a drug used in glaucoma surgery, the company said.

Apothecary Shop Wholesale has received exclusive distribution rights for Mobius Therapeutics' drug Mitosol (mitomycin), which the Food and Drug Administration approved earlier this month.

NEW YORK — Americans that suffer from diabetes and/or hypertension are at risk of developing a common type of glaucoma, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center.

According to a recent American Eye-Q survey issued earlier this month, only 
32% of Americans understand that the summer sun can do as much damage on the eyes as it does to unprotected skin. Exposure to small amounts of ultraviolet radiation over a period of many years increases the chance of developing cataracts, macular degeneration and eye cancer.

ATLANTA — A drug designed to treat an eye condition caused by diabetes may provide a long-term option for patients, according to Alimera Sciences.

Alimera said in two three-year, phase-3 pivotal clinical trials — collectively known as the FAME Study — of Iluvien, which is designed to treat diabetic macular edema, the drug improved visual acuity among patients.

WASHINGTON The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease caused by diabetes, has increased among diabetic adults in the United States, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.