TY - JOUR T1 - Current and emerging pharmaceutical interventions for myopia JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol SP - 1539 LP - 1548 DO - 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2018-313798 VL - 103 IS - 11 AU - Kritchai Vutipongsatorn AU - Tae Yokoi AU - Kyoko Ohno-Matsui Y1 - 2019/11/01 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/103/11/1539.abstract N2 - Myopia is a major cause of visual impairment. Its prevalence is growing steadily, especially in East Asia. Despite the immense disease and economic burden, there are currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for myopia. This review aims to summarise pharmaceutical interventions of myopia at clinical and preclinical stages in the last decade and discuss challenges for preclinical myopia drugs to progress to clinical trials. Atropine and oral 7-methylxanthine are shown to reduce myopia progression in human studies. The former has been extensively studied and is arguably the most successful medication. However, it has side effects and trials on low-dose atropine are ongoing. Other pharmaceutical agents being investigated at a clinical trial level include ketorolac tromethamine, oral riboflavin and BHVI2 (an experimental drug). Since the pathophysiology of myopia is not fully elucidated, numerous drugs have been tested at the preclinical stage and can be broadly categorised based on the proposed mechanisms of myopisation, namely antimuscarinic, dopaminergic, anti-inflammatory and more. However, several agents were injected intravitreally or subconjunctivally, hindering their progress to human trials. Furthermore, with atropine being the most successful medication available, future preclinical interventions should be studied in combination with atropine to optimise the treatment of myopia. ER -