Thank you for saying Eye to Preservative Freedom and pledging your support for lifelong ocular health. Your commitment is vital. We will be sharing materials and updates quarterly to support you and keep you informed, focusing on the Preservative Freedom Coalition pillars of awareness, availability, and advocacy around creating a preservative-free eyecare future.
In this edition
Saying Eye, what does taking the pledge mean?
Creating awareness: Discussing preservatives with patients
Preservative Freedom News
Coalition founding member spotlight: Elena Sturman, The Glaucoma Foundation
About Preservative Freedom
Saying Eye, what does taking the pledge mean?
Thank you for pledging your support for lifelong ocular health and demonstrating your commitment. When you said Eye to Preservative Freedom, you joined a growing community of eye care professionals, advocates, and patients committed to a preservative-free future in eye health.
You can help by:
Educating yourself and/or your patients on the impact of sustained use of preservatives on the ocular surface
Where possible, present options that are preservative-free or ask for preservative-free options
Equipping others with the knowledge to make informed decisions around preservatives and topical ophthalmic treatments
Together, we can support a future in eye health that prioritizes the health of the ocular surface! 2
Awareness: Discussing preservatives with patients
Having a dialogue about ocular health and building an understanding of preservatives is not just important – it's empowering. Ensuring patients are well-informed supports them in making better decisions around their health, conditions, and needs. Not all topical eye products have a preservative-free option, but there are a lot that do. Through dialogue, there can be an understanding of the impact of preservatives and preservative load, helping patients and ECPs to work together to determine the best ways forward that support immediate and future ocular health.
Preservatives play a critical role as an antibacterial, however, outside of the bottle, preservatives are known to have both short and long-term potential complications [1].
Prolonged use of preservative formulations has proven deleterious to the ocular surface and some anatomical structures of the eye. The impacts start immediately and continue to build over time [2].
Immediate and short-term effects of preservatives can include:
Eye irritation, redness, dryness, and allergic reactions
Burning and stinging sensations
Blurring of vision
Discomfort or inflammation of the eyelids
Over cumulative and long-term use of preservatives, complications can continue:
Eye irritation, redness, dryness, and allergic reactions
Burning and stinging sensations
Blurring of vision
Discomfort or inflammation of the eyelids
For some people, these complications can lead to permanent vision impairment or loss of vision.
For more information on preservatives and their impact, and some questions to help bring the topic to the forefront in conversations between patients and ECPs, please see our discussion guide.
Preservative Freedom News
The importance of preservatives and patient eye care is continuing to gain traction and awareness. Earlier this year, we were pleased to see the American Optometric Association (AOA) draft guidelines for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma, which included information on preservative-free considerations for patients. Following the AOA call for public and professional feedback, the Preservative Freedom Coalition submitted recommendations on how this could be further strengthened, and we are hopeful that many of these will be adopted. We look forward to seeing the final guidelines that will be published later this year.
Founding Member Spotlight
Elena Sturman, President, and CEO of The Glaucoma Foundation
Since joining The Glaucoma Foundation in 2019 as President and CEO, Elena has been instrumental in the organization’s efforts to advance research, education, and patient support for glaucoma.
On the Preservative Freedom Coalition Advisory Board, Elena brings the patient's voice to our discussions to ensure their needs are reflected in the efforts and activities of the group.
“I have learned a lot about glaucoma during my tenure at TGF. But the complications patients experience with eye drops, the ocular surface disease, and accompanying side effects caused by the preservatives found in most glaucoma topical medications, is pretty shocking.
Even for patients who do not experience discomfort, preservatives like BAK can be unnecessarily damaging to the eye. This is why I have joined The Preservative Freedom Coalition and why I support its efforts to educate patients, physicians, and industry about the imperative for preservative-free eye drops, where possible, and its advocacy for their development and affordability.” 4
About Preservative Freedom
Our mission is to bring the importance of preservative-free treatments into focus and encourage patient-centered discussion that inspires a change in habits that prioritizes future eye health.
We focus on three pillars to drive meaningful change:
If you or your organization would like to get involved in Preservative Freedom, please contact the secretariat at secretariat@preservativefreedom.com.
The Preservative Freedom campaign is led by a Coalition of leaders in eye health and care in the United States. The founding members of the coalition include Dry Eye University, The Glaucoma Foundation, Intrepid Eye Society, the National Medical Association of Ophthalmology Section, Real World Ophthalmology, and Thea Pharma Inc. Together, the group focuses on raising awareness of unmet needs in ocular surface disease and opportunities to pursue preservative-free topical ophthalmic medications.
Awareness
Jointly educating on the benefits of preservative-free medications, where possible, to healthcare professionals, patients, and the broader healthcare community, with the goal of increasing awareness of the need to protect the ocular surface.
Availibility
Collaborating to help ensure that preservative-free medications are widely available to patients by identifying and addressing barriers to distribution and promoting fair and equitable access.
Advocacy
Advocating for policies supporting a future that puts preservative-free first, where possible, with the aim of creating a more favourable regulatory and reimbursement environment. If you or your organization would like to get involved in Preservative Freedom, please contact the secretariat at secretariat@preservativefreedom.com.
The Preservative Freedom campaign is led by a Coalition of leaders in eye health and care in the United States. The founding members of the coalition include Dry Eye University, The Glaucoma Foundation, Intrepid Eye Society, the National Medical Association of Ophthalmology Section, Real World Ophthalmology, and Thea Pharma Inc. Together, the group focuses on raising awareness of unmet needs in ocular surface disease and opportunities to pursue preservative-free topical ophthalmic medications.
Reference List
Intrepid. (2024). Intrepid Eye Society Consensus Discussion.
PRESERVATIVES IN EYE CARE, 1.
Baudouin, P. C. (n.d.). Introduction.
25 YEARS OF PRESERVATIVE-FREE EYE DROP, 11-14.