The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Mobius Therapeutics, LLC final approval for Mitosol^TM, a new drug delivery device for glaucoma surgery. Mitosol will help surgeons to deliver a precise dose of the device's active ingredient, mitomycin-c—a drug already used to reduce the scar tissue that may lead to increased eye pressure. Mitomycin-c is naturally unstable and hard to prepare in the operating room. However, the room-temperature storage Mitosol device provides a more convenient, stable version of the drug in pre-measured units to help ensure the same quality for each surgery. Mobius Therapeutics will begin marketing and manufacturing the device immediately. It should be noted that surgery is generally reserved for the most advanced cases of glaucoma.

Although mitomycin-c has been used in glaucoma surgeries, other methods of reducing scarring are currently under development, including BrightFocus-sponsored investigator Dr. Hiroshi Nakamura, who is using novel genetic methods to suppress the body's ability to generate scar tissue.

• View the article on Mitosol in the St. Louis Business Journal.
• For more information about the Mitosol device and its use for three separate eye diseases, including glaucoma, see the February 2011 article that appeared in St. Louis Today.