The Dompe biopharmaceutical company announced today that the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products of the European Medicines Agency has officially designated recombinant human Nerve Growth Factor - the investigational biotech molecule developed by Dompe based on research by Nobel Laureate Rita Levi Montalcini - as an orphan drug for the treatment of neurotrophic keratitis. NGF is the first neurotrophic factor to be identified and purified, and represents one of the most interesting topics being studied in medicine today and specifically in ophthalmology.