Pfizer-supported research confirms glaucoma risk assessment tool value

Research supported by Pfizer and Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Research Laboratories in conjunction with a number of national health institutes and the European Commission has concluded that people at risk of contracting glaucoma will benefit from a risk assessment tool.

Analysis of research into the five-year risk assessment tool found that patients with increased intraocular pressure who also have other risk factors, such as being over-40, are the highest risk group for the development of primary open-angle glaucoma.

Pfizer reports that the results of this analysis are similar to those of Dr Robert N Weinreb and Dr Felipe A Medeiros in 2005, which were based on the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study in 2002.

Dr Michael Kass, head of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University, said: “It is critical to continue to evaluate and refine innovative, predictive models in ophthalmic medicine in order to provide the best possible treatments for patients.

He added that it was hoped that the risk-assessment tool become universally adapted, as the Framingham Study for cardiac risk assessment has done.

Earlier this year, Pfizer announced that it had signed an agreement worth 23 million euro (15.6 million pounds) with NicOx for the use of its eye care technology, with an additional 300 million euro paid if certain milestones are reached.