The firm’s lead asset, reproxalap, one-upped Novartis’s Xiidra in a mid-stage ophthalmology study, signalling its first-line promise in a market ridden with compliance issues.

Biotech hopes to counter established Restasis and Xiidra in dry eye with a combination of two approved ophthalmology eye drops, offering quicker onset of action, tolerability and strong efficacy.

Market Snapshot: Kala's Phase III nanoparticle along with Aldeyra's aldehyde trap drug and Ocugen's brimonidine/steroid combo, both in Phase II, are among the candidates pursuing Restasis and Xiidra.

Pfizer R&D chief Mikael Dolsten and his counterpart at Allergan, David Nicholson, oversee very different research organizations, but in interviews at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference the two heads of R&D insisted the chasm between their research models is not so vast.