Allergan’s drug for longer eyelashes gets FDA’s approval

Florida, United States, December 27: Allergan’s drug for hypotrichosis of eyelashes was approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday.

The company officials spoke of FDA’s approval of Latisse™, the first and only scientific treatment to enhance length, thickness and darkness of eyelashes for those 18 and older.

Latisse™ 0.03% got approved as a novel treatment for hypotrichosis of the eyelashes and will be available by prescription in early 2009. It contains the active ingredient of the glaucoma drug Lumigan, which is also made by Allergan.

“Latisse™ fulfills a significant and previously unmet need in the medical aesthetic marketplace with a product approved by the FDA that increases the growth of eyelashes, making them longer, thicker and darker,” said Scott Whitcup, M.D., Allergan’s executive vice president of research and development. “As the global leader in medical aesthetics, LATISSE™ exemplifies our continuing commitment to developing innovative treatments that are studied in well-controlled clinical trials, manufactured to pharmaceutical standards, appropriately labeled for use, and available to consumers as a prescription product.”

The eyelash-thickening drug contains the active ingredient bimatroprost and is a once-daily prescription treatment to be used with a sterile, single-use-per-eye disposable applicator. Eyelashes return to where they were prior to treatment once the treatment is stopped.

Officials of Allergen Inc, a multi-specialty healthcare company, revealed on Friday that Latisse is meant to be used on the lash line on the upper eyelids and the users can expect “longer, fuller, and darker eyelashes in as little as eight weeks.”

Although Allergan estimates global sales of Latisse to reach up to $500 million a year, the sales forecast might be a bit difficult considering the fact that Latisse is the first prescription drug of its kind in the market.

An analyst at Leerink Swann, Gary Nachman, felt that while approval was expected, “in this cautious environment, every approval through the FDA should be viewed positively.” He said that he expects drug’s sales to fetch $20 million in 2009 which, he felt, would grow to $80 million in 2012. “We believe the opportunity for Latisse could be much larger, but we still need to do more work on this largely unpioneered market.”

Latisse’s use will be of significant help to cancerdefine patients who lose eyelashes through chemotherapy.

Common side-effects of Latisse could be eye-redness and itchy eyes. Although not clinically proven, increased brown pigmentation of the eyelid skin and the colored part of the eye might also be some of the less common side effects.