If you've ever had an eye injection, you know the drill: the numbing drops, the antiseptic, the moment when the needle approaches. It's not exactly a spa day. But Harrow Inc. (NASDAQ: HROW) is trying to change that with its ophthalmic gel IHEEZO, and new data suggests it might be working.
On Thursday, the ophthalmic disease management company released results from a prospective, randomized, contralateral-eye clinical study. The setup was clever: patients received both IHEEZO and a standard anesthetic, one in each eye, during same-day bilateral intravitreal injections (IVT). That way, each patient served as their own control, making the comparison about as apples-to-apples as it gets.
The findings were striking. Patients reported an approximate 58% overall decrease in discomfort in the eye treated with IHEEZO compared to the fellow eye treated with proparacaine, the standard of care. And this wasn't a one-off fluke; the improvements were statistically significant at every single time point measured across the four post-procedure assessments.
The most dramatic differences showed up right after the injection, which makes sense. That's when the pain is typically at its worst. At the two-minute mark, the absolute treatment difference was 1.62 points, with discomfort scores of 1.44 for IHEEZO versus 3.06 for the control. An hour later, the gap was still wide: 1.26 for IHEEZO versus 2.82 for the fellow eye, an absolute difference of 1.56 points. And the relief didn't fade; it held steady through the final 24-hour evaluation.
Why does this matter beyond just patient comfort? Well, as William Blair analyst Lachlan Hanbury-Brown pointed out on Thursday, discomfort from current anesthetic and antiseptic protocols is a major reason patients skip or delay their IVT injections. Poor compliance can have serious consequences for conditions like macular degeneration, where regular injections are crucial to preserving vision. So a more comfortable experience could mean better adherence and, ultimately, better outcomes.
Hanbury-Brown also sees these results as a positive signal for Harrow's ongoing Phase IV QUELL study, which is expected to read out later this year. If IHEEZO continues to perform well, it could solidify its place in the market and drive further adoption by retina specialists. The analyst maintained an Outperform rating on the stock, writing in an investor note on Thursday, "We think the seasonality in the company's underlying business could drive some volatility in the stock, but we believe the long-term growth outlook is attractive."
Harrow is positioning itself as a leader in the U.S. ophthalmic pharmaceutical market, and its FDA-approved franchise is growing. The stock was down 1.33% at $41.50 at the time of publication on Friday, but with data like this, the long-term picture might be worth keeping an eye on.
