AOA 2023: Investigating ingredients in preservative-free contact lens rewetting drops

Marjorie Rah, OD, PhD, FAAO, sat down with Optometry Times®' assistant managing editor Emily Kaiser to give a brief overview of her ePoster, "Clinical performance of unique preservative-free contact lens lubricating and rewetting drop," which she presented during the 2023 AOA Optometry's Meeting ePoster session in Washington, DC.

Video transcript

Emily Kaiser:
Hi everyone. I'm Emily Kaiser with Optometry Times, and I'm sitting down with Dr. Marjorie Rah, who is presenting 3 ePosters regarding the Biotrue Hydration Boost Contact Lens Rehydrating Drops, including a clinical trial investigating the drops, at Optometry's Meeting, which is hosted by the AOA. Welcome, Dr. Roh! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

So first, can you give us a brief overview of your posters?

Marjorie Rah, OD, PhD, FAAO:
Yes, thank you. We have 3 posters. This year, we're very excited to present the science behind our new preservative-free rewetting drop that we're just launching this month in June. And 2 of the posters are on the ingredients in the drop.

So the drop contains hyaluronan [or hyaluronic acid, HA], which is a lubricant found naturally in the eye. And we wanted to see how long the HA will last on a contact lens when you put a drop of the solution on your lens. So we took both conventional hydrogel and silicone hydrogel lenses, and we put a drop on the lenses, and then we rinsed them with saline solution at a rate mimicking natural tears. We took measurements to see how long we could still see the HA on the lens, and we can show that up to 8 hours, we can still see HA on the lenses.

And then we also did a second poster, we presented a second poster on erythritol, another ingredient in the drops. And the erythritol acts as both an osmoprotectant and an antioxidant. This particular poster focused on the antioxidant properties of erythritol. And one of the things that we know is that oxidative stress will break down and make molecular weight of HA. So we looked at the solution both with and without erythritol and measured the molecular weight of BHA. And we can show that with the BHA in the solution, we actually maintain the molecular weight of HA.

And then finally, we know that you know what people are really interested in is how well it performs clinically. So we did do a clinical study. It was a 1-month clinical study at 20 sites in the United States. We enrolled 155 subjects, we followed them for that whole month. At 2 weeks and 1 month, we gave them a chance to rate the product on a scale of 0-100, with 100 being most favorable, and we asked them about comfort and dryness. The results showed very high scores for both comfort and dryness that were consistent across the visits in the study, so showed very favorable outcomes for the patients in the study.

Kaiser:
That's fascinating. What do you hope that optometrists take away from each of your posters?

Rah:
Well, so probably just as a whole, all 3 posters together, we would like to have the practitioners and patients take away that it's a preservative-free drop that's available in a multidose bottle. It has naturally inspired ingredients that stay on the lens throughout the day, and the results demonstrate that the drops provide lasting moisture for your contact lenses and help to minimize contact lens dryness.

Kaiser:
Fantastic. So how will this information trickle down to patient care?

Rah:
So the drops will be available at most major retail markets. We will also have a social media campaign, so there'll be able to find it on social media. and we have other market initiatives that we'll be rolling out so that patients can find the drop and give it a try for themselves.

Kaiser:
Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me and tell me more about the posters.