Clinical Minute: Evaluating the Safety of Netarsudil

Announcer:
You’re listening to Eye on Ocular Health on ReachMD, and this episode is part of our "Clinical Minute" series. Here’s your host, Dr. Neda Shamie.

Dr. Shamie: 
In this "Clinical Minute," we'll be discussing a posthoc analysis of data from a phase 3 evaluation of the IOP-lowering efficacy and safety of netarsudil 0.02% versus timolol 0.5%. My dear friend, Dr. Francis Mah is here to discuss the findings.

Francis, thank you so much for being here and for, again, contributing so much to the science of our field. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what your findings were and how this can potentially apply in our clinical practice.

Dr. Mah:
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for inviting me to discuss this paper. So the paper essentially was to look at the safety, at least this paper was. So the clinical trial, the FDA study registration trial was the netarsudil versus timolol for IOP lowering. And it included in this study, there's always looking at safety as well as adverse events.

Netarsudil has some unique adverse events. It's obviously a different molecule than we've used before those ROCK inhibitors, and they've got lots of different possibilities and characteristics. A couple of the adverse events that were identified early on, were a little bit of corneal verticillata from the drug itself, as well as some conjunctival hyperemia, or little vessels which would show up in the conjunctivae. So a lot of the focus ever since CyPass and some of the MIGS, has been endothelial in terms of medications in general, as well as devices. And so, part of the study looked at the effects of netarsudil on the endothelium, and whether there was any toxicity on the corneal endothelium, especially since there was noted to be some corneal verticillata associated with netarsudil.

And in this study, essentially, it showed that there were absolutely no effects on the corneal epithelium in terms of any toxicity, any types of polymegathism or any of the other possible findings from the cornea and the endothelium. So we can use obviously the netarsudil and supposedly, you know, all of the ROCK inhibitors that help lower the IOP without having any endothelial trauma or damage or any changes to the endothelium.

Dr. Shamie: 
I think this is a really important study to just showcase how a new molecule can come into the field and potentially add either an additive effect as to the treatment options we have available or potentially equivalent or superior to others. So it's always exciting to see innovation in our field, new treatment modalities, new treatment options for our patients. And with it, just a forward movement in the science of ophthalmology.

Dr. Mah: 
I completely agree with you, and continue, Neda, to find these studies and to report on the studies, and to help our peers and educate all of us. You do a fantastic job.

Dr. Shamie:
Thank you so much. It's always fun to share a platform with you.

Dr. Mah:
Same here. 

Dr. Shamie:
And thanks for doing this again.

Dr. Mah: 
Absolutely. Anytime.

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