Ibopamine is a sympathomimetic drug, designed as a prodrug of epinine (deoxyepinephrine or N-methyldopamine), used in ophthalmology.

[6] Due to the esterases existing in the aqueous humour and ocular tissues, ibopamine can be rapidly hydrolysed to epinine which is the active molecule responsible for the mydriatic effect.

It has been shown that the half-life of ibopamine is short to about 2 minutes in the aqueous humour owing to the fast hydrolysis.

After being hydrolysed to epinine, ibopamine is able to stimulate the alpha-adrenergic and D1 dopaminergic receptors, thereby exhibiting mydriatic effects.

[11] In some randomized clinical trials, the D1 dopaminergic activity of ibopamine led to an increased production of aqueous humour and intraocular pressure (IOP) in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) patients.