The tale of a miracle eye drop that ended in tears!

In the past two weeks, Indian media, more so the social media, has been abuzz with the news of an eye drop that could treat short-sightedness in just15 minutes.

On television, news anchors and health correspondents claimed that the wonder eye drop, PresVu, the first of its kind developed in India, would soon make eyeglasses redundant.

In their technical literature, the makers of the medicine, Entod Pharmaceuticals, have stated that the medicine is only good for people between 40 and 55 years of age, and it reduces only the short-sightedness caused by presbyopia, a weakness of eyes that grows with age. It has also stated that the effect of the medicine lasts only a few hours, and its prolonged use can cause side effects. It has advised that the medicine must be used only with a doctor’s prescription.

But the top brass of the company did everything to create a hype around the medicine, often not disclosing the finer details. They also made a virtue of a routine approval granted to the medicine by India’s drug regulator, DGCI.

Self-proclaimed experts on social media spun the information further, often with interviews of the CEO of the company making tall claims. If you believe them, this one-of-its-kind medicine would eventually reduce all types of problems relating to eyesight. It is supposed to be a miracle for all types of eyesight issues in which the patient has difficulty seeing things in close vicinity. Some even speculated that soon spectacles would be a thing of the past.

Viewer comments on these YouTube videos bear testimony to the crowd-mindedness and gullibility of the common people; these range from an eagerness to buy the product off the shelf to experimenting it on other types of eye issues. Of course, the company has received unbridled adulation for ‘serving the country with such a grand treatment’.

But the bubble burst sooner than expected. Within two weeks, on September 11, DGCI issued an order suspending its permission to the company to make and sell the medicine. The company, perhaps with teary eyes, has threatened to go to court against the authority’s action.

For the record, PresVu is a solution of pilocarpine, a chemical in use for treatment of glaucoma, and is available in some countries for many years for temporary treatment of presbyopia.

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This article has been contributed by Manoj Pandey. He does not like to call himself rationalist but insists on scrutiny of apparent myths as well as what are supposed to be immutable scientific facts. Please don't take the views of the author as the views of Raag Delhi.