Advanced eye drops may allow you to chuck your glasses

Would you rather wear glasses or contact lenses, have laser surgery, or put drops in your eyes to see well? Consumers are starting to demand the third option, as new scientific advances have made corrective eye drops possible. This is big business: A couple of years ago, pharma giant Novartis acquired a company developing a topical treatment for age-related farsightedness (presbyopia), while others are experimenting with eye drops to dissolve cataracts.

In Israel, two startups are in the clinical stages of testing their corrective eye drops. ISRAEL21c asked them to explain how their different approaches could radically alter the way people improve their vision.

ORASIS: Goodbye, reading glasses

Orasis Pharmaceuticals of Herzliya recently raised $13 million to continue developing pharmaceutical-grade eye drops intended to improve near vision so people won’t need their reading glasses. CEO Elad Kedar says presbyopia affects the majority of people over age 45, giving Orasis a potential market of nearly 2 billion people around the globe; 120 million in United States. “The lenses in our eyes, like any other organ, get old and gradually lose the flexibility to change shape to focus on near objects,” Kedar says. “The reduction in flexibility makes it difficult to focus on near objects and eventually you need reading glasses.” -- More....