Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. said Friday that regulators cleared Lumigan, its prescription eye drop, as a treatment for an eye condition that’s associated with glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
The condition, elevated intraocular pressure, could eventually cause blindness. It is associated with open-angle glaucoma, which affects some 3 million Americans.
Regulators originally cleared Lumigan in 2001 as a pressure-lowering drug for patients who failed to respond to other glaucoma drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration’s latest approval allows Lumigan to be used on patients who haven’t been treated at all.
Allergan Chief Executive David E.I. Pyott once referred to Lumigan as having “the characteristics of a product with great potential.”
