SupplySide West In Brief

AREDS II rolling: Enrollment is complete and the second iteration of the National Eye Institute's Age-Related Eye Diseases Study is under way, according to Paul S. Bernstein, a researcher and professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Utah School of Medicine's John A. Moran Eye Center. At the SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas Oct. 22, Bernstein said through 2013, AREDS II will follow 4,000 patients between the ages of 50 and 85 with high risk for age-related macular degeneration at 100 U.S. sites. He explained that the antioxidant formulation for the first AREDS was "based on the best science of the 1980s" and omitted lutein and zeaxanthin, but the AREDS II formulation includes those carotenoids at levels about five times greater than a typical American diet. The revised formulation also lowers the original zinc and beta-carotene levels due to concerns about urinary tract problems and lung cancer, respectively. The AREDS results, released in 2001, showed high-dose antioxidant vitamins and minerals reduce the risk of advanced AMD progression by 25 percent (1"The Tan Sheet" Jan. 21, 2008, p. 14)