Update on Diquafosol?

[BigNate]

A couple of years ago, this was approved in Japan. Any word on whether or not it is in the US yet? If not, any suggestions for people with mucin deficiency?

[spmcc]

I am very interested in the answer to this question too. I've been reading a recent paper out of Japan (Anatomy of Secretory Glands in the Eyelid and Conjunctiva http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23381567). The authors mention diquafosol a number of times ---

Page 2

Diquafosol eyedrops are another measure of treatment, promoting tear secretion from the lacrimal gland

Page 3

The diquafosol eyedrops stimulate mucin secretion from the goblet cells

and Page 4

The diquafosol eyedrops may increase lipid secretion as well

It sounds like the drops do everything (help aqueous, lipid, mucin). I'd like to try them!

[BigNate]

I called the manufacturer of this drug (I probably should have done that first before posting here). Diquafosol was made by Inspire, then Inspire was acquired by Merck. I called Merck and the guy I talked to looked it up in his database and has no record of such drug.

With that being said, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Hopefully someone else can help us out though and give us more info. I know that it is available in Japan and South Korea at this point...or at least was quite recently.

[jenny2008]

my corneal specialist who i had years ago kept telling me about this comingn out--this was in 2009.. he wsa very dissapointed when it again failed fda approval in teh states and restasis doesnt seem to do a lot for my sjogrens eyes.he thought this could really help.. maybe it will eventually come here?? i dont know...


just thought of something... whatever the ingredients are in it-cant they be compounded by leiters or some other compounding pharmacy? wasnt cycyosporine done that way before restasis??

[DCRdryeye]

Jenny you raise a good point here. Let's find out the ingredients in Diquafosol and look at having it compounded. It's ridiculous making us wait many years whilst as the seconds pass our eyes are in pain. But, what is the success rate of Diquafosol?

[gormz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diquafosol
P1,P4-Bis(5'-uridyl) tetraphosphate

heres another study...done fairly recently
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22878452

[DCRdryeye]

Should form a coalition and get some open minded ophthalmologists and compounders involved who'll ship to anyone. If no narrow minded, rigid and narcissistic ophthalmologist wants to step out of the box, let's make some noise!! The restrictions applied to us is like being in a jail cell whilst looking out of a small window at the freedom we could enjoy with the correct treatments.

[bunnyrabbit123]

Well said, DCR!

[DCRdryeye]

What's the status with Diquafosol? Has anyone managed to try it yet?

[spmcc]

The reply from Leiter's on May 6th regarding compounding Diquafosol (tetrasodium salts) was

Unfortunately we have not been able to find a FDA approved supplier for this chemical. Thus we will not be able to compound this at this time. Feel free to call me to discuss other available options for you.

[Dog2012]

Can we start a petition on http://www.change.org ? My English isn't really good can some one to help ?

[kylix]

what about getting it via some international pharmacy? Like that one in Vienna, Austria. I was told they can get me Restasis albeit it's not approved in Europe. But there must be more such a pharmacies worldwide. Via them it could be accessible. Does anyone have any experience with them?