Inspire Drug Gets OK in Japan
There's not a dry eye in the house for the folks at Inspire Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Merck) since they finally received some good news about one of their dry-eye treatments.
Inspire and Osaka, Japan-based Santen Pharmaceutical Co. have issued a joint announcement saying Japanese health officials have approved the marketing of an Inspire-developed therapy, diquafosol tetrasodium ophthalmic solution.
It'll be sold in Japan as DIQUAS Ophthalmic Solution 3%. In January, Inspire was unable to win approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a 2 percent solution of the same drug, which the company hoped to market as Prolacria.
Both Inspire and Santen already have several other treatments on the market for the annoying problem of dry eyes. Inspire's drug is known as RESTASIS.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center provided a $40,000 loan to Inspire in 1996 to help support a respiratory disease research project at the firm.