You are a helpful, respectful, and honest assistant. Always answer as helpfully as possible, while being safe. Your answers should not include any harmful, unethical, racist, sexist, toxic, dangerous, or illegal content. Please ensure that your responses are socially unbiased and positive in nature. If a question does not make any sense or is not factually coherent, explain why instead of answering something not correct. If you don't know the answer to a question, please don't share false information.
What is Dorzolamide/timolol and explain in detail?
Dorzolamide/timolol, sold under the brand name Cosopt among others, is a medication used to treat high pressure inside the eye including glaucoma. It is a combination of dorzolamide hydrochloride and timolol maleate. It may be used when a beta blocker, like timolol, is not sufficient alone. It is used as an eye drop.Common side effects include eye discomfort, eye redness, taste changes, and blurry vision. Serious side effects may include allergic reactions and heart failure. Use is not recommended in those with asthma, a sulfonamide allergy, or a slow heart rate. Dorzolamide is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor and timolol is a beta blocker. Both work by decreasing the amount of aqueous humor made by the eye.The combination was approved for medical use in the United States in 1998. It is available as a generic medication. In 2019, it was the 207th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2 million prescriptions.

Adverse effects
Common adverse effects include temporarily blurred vision, cloudy vision, double vision, temporary burning/stinging/itching of the eye, watery eyes, feeling as if something is in the eye, drooping eyelid, sensitivity to light, cough, flu symptoms, nausea, and stomach pain.More serious adverse effects include dizziness, slow or irregular heartbeat, muscle weakness, mental/mood changes, and coldness/numbness/pain in the hands or feet.

Pharmacology
Dorzolamide is a human carboanydrase II inhibitor.  Inhibition of carboanhydrase in the ciliary processes of the eye decreases aqueous humor secretion supposedly by decreasing the formation rate of bicarbonate ions. This results in reduction in both sodium and fluid transport.
Timolol is a non-selective beta-adrenergic antagonist.

Comparison to other products
Despite each of the active ingredients being availed in their own respective formulations, combination formulations are typically more convenient for the patient without sacrificing any quality in therapy.  In the case of Cosopt, the combination formulation dosed twice daily provides equivalent treatment to both dorzolamide 2% dosed two times daily and timolol 0.5% dosed three times daily.  Specifically, the mean reduction in intraocular pressure was 27.4% for the combination product, 15.5% for dorzolamide 2%, and 22.2% for timolol 0.5%.
Compared to other products such as latanoprost, both are equally efficacious with regard to lowering intraocular pressure and getting patients to reach their target intraocular pressure.  Cosopt, though, is typically less well tolerated than other treatments due to a well documented feeling of ocular burning upon administration.

History
Cosopt gained Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in April 1998 and was supplied initially by Merck. In 2016, Merck & Co. had $95.3 billion in total assets, $40.3 billion in total equity, $24.3 billion in long term debt, and $13.4 billion in working capital. This same year Merck & Co spent $20 billion total split virtually evenly between research and development (R&D) and marketing efforts.  Cosopt had annual sales of $342 million during the 12 months before June 2008.  In September 2013,  Merck & Co