Future of Ophthalmic Anti-infective Therapy and the Role of Moxifloxacin Ophthalmic Solution 0.5% (VIGAMOX®)

The vintage antibiotics that were available in the 1950s-1980s were sometimes toxic, had limited spectra, and were bacteriostatic agents, and they have been replaced by significantly broader-spectrum therapies. We ask more of our future antibiotic products for ophthalmology: they must be 1) broad spectrum, 2) convenient to use, 3) useful prophylactically, 4) effective therapeutically, 5) benzalkonium chloride-free, 6) comfortable, and 7) nontoxic. The emergence of antibiotic resistance has focused us on more potent agents effective against resistant strains of bacteria. Fluoroquinolones have become a dominant family of ophthalmic antibiotics. But even the older fluoroquinolones (e.g., ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin) have lost much of their effectiveness against some important ocular isolates. Considering all of the characteristics for an ideal ophthalmic antibiotic product available today, moxifloxacin ophthalmic solution 0.5% represents a primary antibiotic product of choice for treating and preventing ophthalmic infections.