Bausch & Lomb Inc.’s topical medication – Besivance - for treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis, commonly called pink eye, has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. The new treatment for pink eye is manufactured by Bausch & Lomb’s Tampa facility.

Besivance is essentially an antibacterial ophthalmic drop, which is effective in treating a number of eye pathogens, including bacterial conjunctivitis.

According to Mike McDougall, Bausch & Lomb’s Vice President of corporate communications and public affairs, Besivance will be jointly promoted by Bausch & Lomb and competitor Pfizer Inc – the two companies announced a five-year deal in March, whereby the two will co-promote each other’s ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. The medication would likely be available at pharmacies by prescription in June.

According to an FDA release pertaining to the Besivance approval, the agency said that the treatment has been approved after a series of eight clinical trials, after an FDA Advisory Committee’s unanimous recommendation for its approval in December 2008.

Saying that the research and development concerning Besivance had taken place at the Tampa facility as well as the Bausch & Lomb headquarters in Rochester, New York, McDougall added that ever since the company’s 2004 purchase of the original compounds of the medication, it had persisted with the requisite clinical testing.