chemistry

Lifitegrast

Lifitegrast is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lifitegrast rather than just read about it. In short: Lifitegrast, sold under the brand name Xiidra (), is a medication for the treatment of signs and symptoms of dry eye, a syndrome called keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Lifitegrast reduces inflammation by inhibiting inflammatory cell binding.

Key takeaways

Lifitegrast belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lifitegrast to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lifitegrast from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lifitegrast, sold under the brand name Xiidra (), is a medication for the treatment of signs and symptoms of dry eye, a syndrome called keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Lifitegrast reduces inflammation by inhibiting inflammatory cell binding. It is often used as an alternative to ciclosporin (Ikervis, Restasis, Vevye, Verkazia or Cequa) for dry eye treatment including meibomian gland dysfunction and inflammatory dry eye.

Adverse effects Common side effects in clinical trials were eye irritation, discomfort, blurred vision, and dysgeusia (a distortion of the sense of taste).

Pharmacology Lifitegrast is supplied as an eye drop.

Mechanism of action Lifitegrast inhibits an integrin, lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1), from binding to intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1). This mechanism down-regulates inflammation mediated by T lymphocytes.

History Lifitegrast was initially designed by Sunesis and developed by SARcode Bioscience which was acquired by Shire in 2013, which submitted a new drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2015. The FDA granted Shire a priority review a month later, and requested additional clinical data, which were supplied in January 2016; approval was granted on 11 July 2016. Lifitegrast was approved by Health Canada in January 2018, and available in Canadian pharmacies as of March 2018. Shire was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in late 2018. In May 2019 Novartis reached an agreement to purchase the assets associated with lifitegrast. Novartis will pay Takeda an upfront payment of $3.4 billion, while the latter drugmaker is eligible for milestone payments of as much as $1.9 billion. Novartis noted that the drug amassed approximately $400 million in revenue in 2018. In 2023, Novartis sold the assets to Bausch + Lomb for $1.75 billion and eligible for an additional $750 million in payments linked to future sales for Xiidra as well as two pipeline assets.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lifitegrast

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lifitegrast claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lifitegrast before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lifitegrast ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lifitegrast

In research: Lifitegrast appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lifitegrast in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lifitegrast is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alpha-Amino acids, Benzamides, Drugs developed by Novartis, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lifitegrast outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lifitegrast in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lifitegrast means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lifitegrast out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lifitegrast in simple terms?

Why does Lifitegrast matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lifitegrast?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lifitegrast.