The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given its approval for a new eye drop called Tryptyr (pronounced Trip-tir). This medicine is the first of its kind to treat eye dryness and help with the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease: a common problem where your eyes don’t make enough tears or your tears dry up too quickly.
Currently, dry eye disease treatments often aren’t fast-acting, which can make patients stop using their medicine regularly. Tryptyr is different because it works by gently “waking up” the nerves in the front of the eye, encouraging the user’s natural tears much faster. The medicine will come in small, single-use containers, and require one drop in each eye, twice a day.
Tryptyr was approved as a result of two main clinical trials: COMET-2 and COMET-3. Over 930 people who had dry eye disease were part of these studies. They were split into two groups: one group received Tryptyr, and the other received a “vehicle,” which is like a placebo eye drop that doesn’t contain any medicine.
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The studies showed that Tryptyr started working quickly, even on the very first day. People who used Tryptyr saw a major increase in the amount of natural tears their eyes made. For example, after 14 days, a lot more people using Tryptyr had a significant increase in tears compared to those using the fake drops (42.6% vs. 8.2% in COMET-2; 53.2% vs. 14.4% in COMET-3). These good results were consistent for up to 90 days. The most common side effect reported by patients in both studies was some pain where the drop was put in.
“Many of my patients continue to face frustrating challenges with dry eye management, and there is a clear need for additional treatment options,” Marjan Farid, M.D., a professor of ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine, said in a statement. “Tryptyr is the first eye drop that stimulates corneal nerves to directly address tear deficiency, a known cause of dry eye disease.”
Alcon, the company that made Tryptyr, plans to make it available in the United States in the fall of 2025.
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Why It’s Important for Black People to Be in Clinical Trials
When new medicines like Tryptyr are being tested in studies, different groups of people must be included, especially Black Americans. Here’s why:
Genetic differences: If Black people aren’t included enough in studies, we can’t be sure if Tryptyr will work just as well and be just as safe for Black bodies. If a medicine is mostly tested on one group, it might not work as well, or could even be harmful, for other groups. This can make health disparities between groups even worse.
Differences in how disease appears: Dry eye disease, even though it seems like it affects everyone, might manifest differently or be caused by different things in different racial and ethnic groups. To really understand the disease and how to treat it best, we need information from all kinds of people. For example, where people live, their income, and how easy it is for them to get healthcare can all affect their dry eye and how they respond to treatment. If Black people aren’t in these studies, we miss important clues about how dry eye affects their community and how to help them best.
Medical mistrust: There is a history of medical mistreatment and unfair practices towards Black patients, resulting in distrust in the healthcare system. To fix this, doctors and researchers need to work harder to involve Black communities, be honest about what they’re doing, and make studies easy for everyone to join. When Black patients are properly included in studies, it helps everyone trust that the results are fair and that the medicine will work for all people. Ultimately, having diverse groups in studies leads to better, safer treatments for everyone. Tryptyr’s approval is a big step, but its full benefit can only be reached when we are confident it can help everyone suffering from dry eye disease, including the Black community.
