One of the most common ocular surface diseases, dry eye disease, affects millions of people across the U.S. and internationally, according to the National Eye Institute.
Several factors play into a person’s likelihood of being afflicted including age, health status and medication regiment. In particular, people over the age of 50, those with chronic health conditions and people who take certain medications are more likely to develop the disease.
With symptoms ranging from burning and stinging to more extreme symptoms such as eye pressure and blurry vision, dry eye continues to be studied with the hope of finding more treatments.
The past few years have seen many new treatments for dry eye come to the market, including a few recent FDA approvals in 2025.
No tears left to cry
In many cases, dry eye can be caused by a disruption in the eye’s natural tear production process, whether by inflammation and blockages that affect the eye’s ability to produce the different tear layers or due to parts of the eye not performing its job properly.
From different nerve receptors to glands, there are many possible areas and causes to engage and treat, sometimes leading to a trial-and-error approach to determine what can provide eye relief.
Treatments for dry eye have ranged from artificial tears and prescription eye drops to help with eye moisture, as well as punctal plugs and gels to help with tear flow. Therapies such as thermal pulsation therapy, LipiFlow, to intense pulsed light therapy, OptiLight, have also been used to help with oil buildup and inflammation blocking natural tear production.
New treatments to try
Whether people are faced with an insufficient amount of tears or an imbalanced composition of them, new treatments continue to evolve and engage as well as stimulate different areas of the tear production process to alleviate dry eye and its symptoms.
One new treatment, Tryptyr, was approved by the FDA in May 2025 as a neuromodulator eye drop that interacts with TRPM8 receptors on the eye’s surface to trigger natural tear production. By engaging with the TRPM8 receptors, Tryptyr can help simulate the sensations of tear evaporation for engaging the process of creating tears to restore moisture in the eyes.
As the company that acquired Tryptyr, Alcon, has reported so far, up to four times more patients have achieved at least a 10-millimeter increase in natural tear production in as early as one day with this methodology.
Baush and Lomb’s Miebo is another recent dry eye prescription eye drop that was approved by the FDA in 2023, and it was the first medication to address meibomian gland dysfunction.
The meibomian gland, located near the eyelids, helps produce the oils needed for tears. The correlated dysfunction disrupts oil production and causes tears to evaporate too quickly due to the lack of healthy oils. The Miebo eye drops are designed to create a protective layer across the eye to help stabilize tears and minimize quick evaporation, leading to decreased eye dryness.
Local optometrist Dr. Karen Riccio has practiced at Eye Designs for nearly 30 years and has started offering Miebo to patients. Though the treatment is newer, Riccio has had a few patients who have benefited from using the eyedrops.
“My patients who have taken it say it’s the best, that ‘It’s not perfect, but it’s the best of anything I’ve tried so far,’” she says.
New dry eye treatments don’t stop there. VEVYE by Harrow and Reproxalap by Aldeyra are two new drops targeting two different causes of inflammation.
VEVYE is a topical, water-free anti-inflammatory with cyclosporine that was given FDA approval in 2023 and seeks to treat inflammation blocking tear production. Likewise, Reproxalap targets the inflammation of dry eye and allergic conjunctivitis by regulating molecules associated with inflammation; however, this prescription is still under its resubmitted New Drug Application to the FDA in May 2025.
Lacripep, which has completed Phase 2 trials, is one aimed to address stinging and burning sensations by stimulating the lacrimal gland to produce tears, oil and mucin, similar to the nasal spray Tyrvaya released in 2021.
Even short-term treatments, such as Eysuvis from Alcon, have been developed for eye dryness from the wind or direct airflow, and there are more to come.
Jane Dimel is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
