Tag: Lanosterol

Over half of all Americans age 80 or older have cataracts or have had surgery to remove them. While surgical intervention is the standard and most effective treatment, many people still wonder, are there any eye drops that help with cataracts? The answer involves understanding current treatment realities versus the promising, yet unproven, frontier of ongoing pharmaceutical research.

In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public warning that the veterinary eye drop product Lanomax is an unapproved new animal drug. This action directly addresses the question: Is Lanomax over the counter? The answer is no, it is not legally available for sale in the U.S., and its use is strongly discouraged by regulatory bodies and veterinary specialists.

First isolated from wool grease, the compound **lanosterol** is a crucial tetracyclic triterpenoid and precursor to all steroids in animals and fungi. It also has a lesser-known, intriguing alternative name: **kryptosterol**.

In a groundbreaking 2015 study, scientists showed that lanosterol eye drops could reverse cataracts in dogs by dissolving protein clumps in the lens. This discovery sparked global interest and led many to ask: **What class of drug is Lanosterol?** The answer is that lanosterol is not a conventional pharmaceutical drug but a naturally occurring substance essential to vertebrate and fungal biochemistry.