FDA approves drug for longer eyelashes
Seattle – Female readers shouldn’t bat their eyes too much at this–the following news report is a health matter, not a cosmetics accessory.The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a drug that will help with producing longer eyelashes.
The drug, Latisse, is supposed to treat those who have hypotrichosis, a condition in which a person does not have enough eyelashes.
This small part of everyone’s face, though mostly covered by women with mascara and other feminine products for more of a flirtatious look, serves an important purpose. Eyelashes keep dust and other dirt from getting into the eyes, something very important in the quest to maintain healthy eyes. Eyes can be easily scratched by the smallest of particles.
The company responsible for this drug is Allergan, a multi-specialty health care company.
The active ingredient in Latisse is bimatroprost, the same ingredient that is in Allergan’s glaucoma treatment Lumigan. According to reports patients taking Lumigan found a side effect of the drug to be eyelash growth.
Latisse is a once-daily prescription treatment that a patient applies to the base of the upper eyelash with a sterile, single-use-per-eye disposable applicator. However, once treatment is stopped, eyelashes will gradually return to where they were prior to treatment.
Users of Latisse can look forward to longer, fuller and darker eyelashes in as little as eight weeks. Full results come in 16 weeks.
In a company press release Scott Whitcup, M.D., the company’s Executive Vice President of Research and Development said, “LATISSE(TM) 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.”
He added, “As the global leader in medical aesthetics, LATISSE(TM) 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 company also stated, “LATISSE(TM) is the first and only science-based treatment approved by the FDA to enhance eyelash prominence as measured by increases in length, thickness and darkness of eyelashes.”
Allergan says LATISSE(TM) will be available in the United States by prescription only. The drug is subject to all U.S. guidelines applicable to dispensing a prescription product. Now that the FDA has given their approval on the drug, the company said it expects to launch the product nationwide in the first quarter of 2009.
For more information, consumers can visit www.latisse.com.
Allergan Inc (NYSE: AGN) was founded in 1950, and is headquartered in Irvine California. The company employs over 8,000 people worldwide.