• by Les Luchter , March 6, 2024

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals will throw a “mite party” Thursday night with a free Facebook event kicking off a consumer campaign by that title.

To be exact, though, Tarsus actually wants to break up so-called “mite parties” that accumulate on the eyelids of Demodex blepharitis (DB) patients. The pharma company wants to increase awareness of its first product, Xdemvy, which is also the first FDA-approved treatment for the condition.

Before the prescription eye drop’s launch this past summer, DB patients needed to rely on such over-the-counter remedies as tea tree oil.

While the Facebook event will feature real-life doctors and patients, the real stars of the “mite party” campaign are cartoon mites, featured in content whose fine print carefully explains that the images are “character representations of Demodex mites.”

Those critters, not the cartoon ones, cause such symptoms as eyelid redness, crusties (collarettes), irritation, misdirected eyelashes, and inflammation.

Consumers can watch the cartoon mites get destroyed in a video at xdemvy.com, which also features an interactive quiz, before and after photos of patients treated with Xdemvy, and other content.

DB affects 25 million Americans, with 1.5 million of them already diagnosed, Aziz Mottiwala, chief commercial officer of Tarsus, told Healio in November.

For now, though, Tarsus is targeting those 1.5 million people, as well as patients who visit eyecare providers (ECPs) for such conditions as dry eye disease, cataracts, and problems maintaining their use of contact lenses. The latter groups “make up a significant portion of the more than 7 million patients currently visiting ECPs,” Bobby Azamian, Tarsis CEO, told analysts on an earnings call last week.

The earnings report itself was highlighted by news that in just six months, Xdemvy had brought in $15 million in sales -- from 17,400 bottles prescribed -- during 2023.

As of Feb. 23, Mottiwala told analysts, about 6,000 ECPS -- or about  40% of 15,000 targeted ECPS -- had prescribed Xdemvy to their patients, with more than half becoming repeat prescribers. The 6,000 ECPs are made up of 60% optometrists and 40% ophthalmologists, he said.