Market Validation
While this platform technology can be used for a variety of indications, our lead product treats glaucoma. Our secondary product treats dry eye disease. These are both growing markets in North America and around the world. While there are many treatment options for glaucoma, many suffer from extremely poor compliance (up to 50% non-compliance) for this chronic condition. For dry eye disease, there are only 3 approved treatments in the US which all suffer from limited efficacy and side effects.
Glaucoma Validation
Key opinion leaders (KOLs) across Canada, US and the UK who were interviewed by 20/20 OptimEyes shared their expert insights on the glaucoma market. One of the main messages from these KOLs was the dissatisfaction associated with currently available treatment options, specifically topically administered eye drops due to poor compliance.
“Compliance and adherence is the number one unmet need for my glaucoma patients. They progress, most likely, because of non-compliance, not because of medicine ineffectiveness."
- US Key Opinion Leader
Latanoprost is the most commonly prescribed drug because it is genericized, well tolerated, and works well for majority of patients. It is considered first-line therapy and serves as a significant barrier of entry for new drugs.
“It’s going to be hard to dethrone latanoprost, unless something comes out that’s dramatically better. Because it’s [latanoprost is] generic, it works so well, and it’s well tolerated.”
- US Key Opinion Leader
“Any new drug has to compete against increasing numbers of cheap, generic drugs, with a long history of clinical experience. That makes it a bit more difficult [for new drugs entering the market].”
- UK Key Opinion Leader
The issues posed by currently available treatment options have often led KOLs to cite the need for more tolerable and compliant therapy options as a significant issue to be addressed in the glaucoma market.
“Patients never admit to being noncompliant. We just assume they are based on not seeing a reduction in IOP… for them we recommend SLT or surgery.”
- Canada Key Opinion Leader
KOLs have demonstrated significant interest in both a 1x weekly formulation and 2x weekly formulation.
“The micelle technology [developed by 20/20 OptimEyes] can play a role for people who cannot instill drops themselves, especially for individuals that have a doctor or nurse administering the drop 1 time a week… that would be optimal.”
- Canada Key Opinion Leader
“If we can get a 2x weekly eye drop, we have a good chance at succeeding in the current market.”
- US Key Opinion Leader
Dry Eye Validation
KOLs believe the dry eye market is growing in many demographic sectors due to the ageing population and activity choices.
“Although I think it's [cyclosporine drug class] probably better than an artificial tear, it's generally not that well tolerated, and it takes at least a month to six weeks before people can even tell it's doing something. So, between its cost, its slow onset of action, and its modest treatment effect, I'm not a big cyclosporine fan."
>> US Key Opinion Leader
“For patients that do not respond to Ikervis [or Restasis in the US] we have to compound the drug [cyclosporine] to 0.15-0.2% formulations.”
>> US Key Opinion Leader
“Dry eye today is almost an epidemic. That's partly because of greater perceived need to treat the disease among doctors. It’s also because of society’s heavy use of home electronics, which has increased those suffering symptoms.”
>> NY State Optometrist
“Incidence of dry eye is climbing. Above all it’s a greater recognition by doctors of dry eye in their patients. Actually, Allergan in its aggressive professional marketing of Restasis has had a big role in heightening practitioners’ appreciation of dry eye as a disease.”
>> Kentucky MD
“Dry eye is increasing because of an older demographic, and also because computer and smart phone usage is exacerbating symptoms. Also, as cataract surgery numbers climb, so does surgery-related dry eye. Treatment for dry eye should start before surgery.”
>> Ohio MD
“I deal with dry eye every single day. Dry eye is increasing as Baby Boomers age. There are co-morbidities with other age-related diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, or side effects from certain medications like anti-depression drugs. Also, we’re seeing kids with dry eye, which is caused by excessive computer use.”
>> NY State Optometrist
KOLs have demonstrated significant interest in both a 1x weekly formulation and 2x weekly formulation.
“The micelle technology [developed by 20/20 OptimEyes] can play a role for people who cannot instill drops themselves, especially for individuals that have a doctor or nurse administering the drop 1 time a week… that would be optimal.”
>> Canada Key Opinion Leader
“If we can get a 2x weekly eye drop [with a higher dose than the currently available cyclosporine drugs], we have a good chance at succeeding in the current market.”
>> US Key Opinion Leader
“I really like this concept, especially the potential for longer drug residency time. It could be game changing.”
>> Ontario Optometrist
The issues posed by currently available treatment options have often led KOLs to cite the need for more tolerable therapy options as a significant issue to be addressed in the DES market.
“Anything we can do to improve adherence to the treatment [cyclosporine drug class] would be game changing … It would lead to significant improvement in compliance.”
>> Canada Key Opinion Leader
Although novel DES treatment options, such as Eysuvis and Cequa, have been marketed to be more tolerable and efficacious, KOLs have suggested that tolerability is still a major concern.
“Drugs with higher concentration [of cyclosporine drug] have been shown to work faster [reduce the time to effect]. Cequa [currently has higher concentration of cyclosporine in comparison to Restasis] is shown to work faster however, it has tolerability issues. Restasis leads to reduction in rewetting drops after a long period of time (5-6 months) … Tolerability issues occur in 20-30% patients with Restasis, 30-40% with Cequa and 40-50% with Xiidra.”
>> US Key Opinion Leader