Vizz (aceclidine), is an eye drop designed to help people who have presbyopia, which is a decline in your eye's ability to focus clearly on things close to you. Things at a distance may or may not be affected by presbyopia. Presbyopia is part of the normal aging process and just seems to happen as you get older. It's similar to, but not exactly the same as, being farsighted (hyperopia). Both of these problems make it hard to see things clearly up close, but the reasons are different.
Your eyes focus light rays to send images of what you are looking at to your brain. When you are farsighted, the light rays do not focus the way they should, making things up close seem blurry. Presbyopia happens because the lens of your eye becomes less flexible with age. The muscles around your lens can also weaken as you grow older. This leads to you having a harder time with close-up vision. Symptoms of presbyopia can include needing to hold reading material at arm's length, blurry vision at a normal reading distance, or having headaches or tired eyes when working on things close to you.
How Does Vizz Work for People With Presbyopia?
Vizz acts on muscles inside your eye. It causes your pupil (the black circle in the center of your eye) to get smaller. This helps you to focus and see things that are close to you more clearly. Vizz seems to act more specifically on the muscle in the eye that affects pupil size than other muscles within the eye.
How Was Vizz Studied for Presbyopia?
Two studies were used to see if Vizz was safe and effective in treating people who have presbyopia: Clarity-1 and Clarity-2. There were 466 people in these studies who were 45 to 75 years old. They could be nearsighted (have myopia) or farsighted (have hyperopia). Some people in the studies had an astigmatism (when your cornea, or the clear front part of the eyeball, is not completely round). Some people had previously had some type of laser eye surgery or lens replacement surgery.
People in the studies used two drops – of Vizz, a placebo eye drop (meaning a drop without medicine in it), or brimonidine – in each eye once daily. They were told to separate the first drop from the second drop by two minutes. The drops were used every day for 42 days. Vision was evaluated on days 1, 15, and 28. The timing of these evaluations ranged from 30 minutes to 10 hours after using the eye drops. Efficacy was defined as being able to see more clearly up close (being able to read at least three more lines) without compromising distance vision (losing one line or five letters or more at a distance).
What Are the Main Benefits of Vizz?
Significantly more people who used Vizz had improvement in their close-up vision (without losing distance vision) compared to people who used either brimonidine (Clarity-1) or a placebo eye drop (Clarity-2). Here are the results on the first day of the study, three hours after the eye drops were used.
- Clarity-1: 65% of people using Vizz had better close-up vision without their distance vision being negatively affected, compared to only 12% of people who used brimonidine.
- Clarity-2: 71% of people using Vizz had better close-up vision without their distance vision being negatively affected, compared to only 8% of people who used a placebo eye drop.
How Long Does It Take for Vizz to Work?
In both the Clarity-1 and Clarity-2 studies, vision was evaluated as soon as 30 minutes after the drops were used to see how quickly vision improvements were seen. More people who used Vizz noted improved vision within 30 minutes of using the drops, compared to the other groups. As many as 72% of people using Vizz had improvement in their close-up vision within 30 minutes of using the eye drops. Only 14% of people who used brimonidine and 12% of people who used a placebo eye drop noted vision improvement within 30 minutes.
How Long Do the Effects of Vizz Last?
In both the Clarity-1 and Clarity-2 studies, vision was evaluated at multiple time points throughout the day after the drops were used to see how long vision improvements lasted. As many as 40% of the people who used Vizz still had improvement in their close-up vision up to 10 hours after using the drops, compared to 6% of people using brimonidine and 5% of people using an eye drop with no medicine in it. See the chart below as a summary of vision changes between seven and 10 hours after using eye drops in Clarity-1 and Clarity-2.
Percentage of patients with improved close-up vision without compromising distance vision
| 7 hours | 8 hours | 9 hours | 10 hours | |
| Vizz | 38% to 57% | 39% to 48% | 38% to 49% | 27% to 40% |
| Brimonidine | 6% | 8% | 4% | 6% |
| Placebo | 9% | 8% | 11% | 5% |
What Side Effects Are Common With Vizz?
Vizz seemed to be well tolerated in the studies used to evaluate if it was safe and effective to use. The most common side effects people noted were mild irritation of the eye after using the eye drops, trouble seeing in the dark or areas with low lighting, redness in the whites of the eyes, or a headache. These side effects were classified as mild and short-term, and they usually got better on their own.
Is There Any Cost Assistance Available?
Vizz is not likely to be covered by most health insurance policies. You may be able to use money from your health savings or flexible spending account to pay for Vizz. Vizz prescriptions can be filled through UpScript at www.upscript.com or your local pharmacy. If you are using your local pharmacy, there is a cost savings card available for you to use. You can download the savings card at www.vizz.com/access-and-pricing.
