NEW

On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a product that can be used to treat a rare type of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa.

It is a genetic eye condition which has got cells of the retina (are responsible for translating light rays into images in the brain.

People with the condition start to lose peripheral vision first, then find it harder to see at night until eventually their central vision is lost as well. About one in 4,000 people in the United States are affected by RP.

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