Bausch + Lomb will advance two of its investigative ophthalmic therapies – an eye drop targeting both evaporative and inflammatory dry eye disease, and a potential therapy for ocular pain – based on recent clinical results.1
Dual Action Eye Drop for Dry Eye Disease
Bausch + Lomb said a first-in-class eye drop combining 5% lifitegrast and perfluorohexyloctane (PFHO) into a single twice-daily treatment will move into Phase 3 development. The drug is designed to address both ocular surface inflammation and tear evaporation – two of the primary underlying causes of dry eye disease.
The Phase 2 study was a four-week trial involving the dual-action eye drop, lifitegrast alone, PFHO alone, and three vehicle masking controls.
It did not meet its primary endpoint of superiority over lifitegrast alone in reducing total corneal fluorescein staining (tCFS) from baseline at day 29, although results numerically favoured the dual-action eye drop (p=0.196).
A pre-specified secondary analysis at day 15 – a timepoint accepted by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a registrational primary endpoint for tCFS – showed a significant reduction in mean change from baseline tCFS for the dual-action eye drop versus lifitegrast alone (p=0.0007). At day 15, 41.6% of patients treated with the dual-action eye drop achieved a ≥3-unit improvement in tCFS, compared with 18.8% of patients treated with lifitegrast alone and 31.6% treated with PFHO alone.
“This was the first time this combination has been studied in humans, and it did exactly what a Phase 2 should do: demonstrated a rapid, robust treatment effect and told us precisely when to measure it,” said Dr Yehia Hashad from Bausch + Lomb.
Ocular Pain Therapy
The second drug, BL1332, is described as a first-in-class topical TRPV1 antagonist designed to target a key receptor involved in ocular pain signalling.
Bausch + Lomb said BL1332 is intended to directly modulate the biological pathways that drive ocular surface pain. The investigational therapy is being evaluated as a potential treatment for multiple forms of ocular surface pain, including post-surgical, acute, and chronic conditions.
Bausch + Lomb said positive Phase 1b results have validated the TRPV1 antagonist approach and strengthened confidence in the ongoing Phase 2 study.
“These results provide the first clinical evidence that targeting TRPV1 can meaningfully reduce ocular pain in humans that have not just undergone surgery,” stated Dr Hashad. “They also strengthen our confidence in the mechanism as we continue evaluating BL1332 in patients with clinically relevant pain conditions.”
Reference
- Bausch + Lomb Corporation. Bausch + Lomb advancing two first-in-class eye health therapies based on trial results. News release. 24 August 2026. Available at bausch.com/newsroom/news/?id=361 [accessed Accessed August 2026].
