No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.

Even though conventional botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) products have shown successful treatment results in patients with benign blepharospasm (BEB), the main, potential long-term side effect of BoNT use is the development of immunologic resistance due to the production of neutralizing antibody to the neurotoxin after repeated injections. Xeomin® (incobotulinumtoxinA), a unique botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) drug free of complexing proteins otherwise contained in all conventional BoNT/A drugs, was recently approved by US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of cervical dystonia or blepharospasm in adults. The newly approved BoNT/A drug may overcome this limitation of previous conventional products, since it contains pure neurotoxin (150 kDa) through a manufacturing process that separates it from complexing proteins such as hemagglutinins produced by fermentation of Clostridium botulinum. Many studies have also shown that Xeomin® has the same efficacy and safety profile as complexing protein-containing products such as Botox® and is exchangeable with Botox® using a simple 1:1 conversion ratio. Xeomin® represents a new treatment option for the repeated treatment of patients with blepharospasm in that it may reduce antibody-induced therapy failure. But, long-term comparative trials in naïve patients between Xeomin® and conventional BoNT/A drugs are required to confirm the low immunogenicity of Xeomin®.

No abstract

No abstract