Allergan Bats Its Lashes at Glaucoma Drug (Pharmalot)

In his blog, Ed Silverman writes about Lumigan, Allergan’s glaucoma medication. One of the side effects of the drug is eyelash growth, which has prompted cosmetic companies to create treatments containing either the active ingredient in Lumigan or other prostaglandins found in glaucoma drugs, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

“The eyelash products look like mascara tubes and have a brush or tip for applying the product along the base of the lashes and typically sell for $140 to $160 in spas and a doc’s office. At the same time, some docs are writing Lumigan off-label scripts for their cosmetic patients,” Silverman writes.

The newspaper interviewed Lorrie Klein, a cosmetic dermatologist, who started prescribing Lumigan after noticing the lashes of a glaucoma patient using the drug. “Now, she promotes Lumigan on her Web site as ‘easy to use at home with only a once-daily application’ for ‘one to three months to achieve the desired length, and then once weekly for maintenance,’” Silverman adds.