The data concerned with the photo-stability of ophthalmic solutions which were prepared by pharmaceutical companies are of little use for daily medication instructions because the test conditions employed by respective companies are not unified. Therefore, we established practical and systematic test conditions and conducted photo-stability studies on 24 types of ophthalmic solutions.
As a result, some of showed a significant loss in the potency of their active ingredient, thus indicating that a light shield is necessary using either a pocket-bag (Uni-Pack®) attached to each product or a medicine paper bag. In addition, as a label stuck to a bottle or a wrapping film was also found to be very effective for shading, and thus patients should be careful not to strip them off at the time of use.
Furthermore, some of our findings were different from the data provided by each pharmaceutical company. Our findings provided important information regarding the appropriate storage conditions for each ophthalmic solution and such information can be utilized in our instructions on drug use.