More BrandsA team of scientists at the University of Florida is developing a bandage contact lense with an extended drug release duration, which potentially creates a new drug delivery system for patients who have undergone eye surgery, FierceDrugDelivery reported recently.
The idea of using silicone hydrogel contact lenses as drug delivery vehicles is not a new one but the Florida research team is aiming to extend significantly the length of the release period. Bandage contact lenses are used after eye surgery or serious eye injury to shield damaged corneas, serving at the same time as a delivery vehicle for anaesthetics and other drugs. With the addition of vitamin E, the drug delivery period can be extended for to up to one week. This is especially important for glaucoma patients as more traditional treatments tend to produce relatively poor results in their case.
In an interview with FierceDrugDelivery, Anuj Chauhan of the University of Florida said that he and his colleagues and other research teams were working on several lens-drug combinations. Contact lenses with sustained drug delivery could prove to be an important solution for curing certain eye diseases. As Chauhan put it, one could argue that contact lenses can cure any ocular disease. For patients suffering from glaucoma and cystinosis, constant drug delivery is required and sustained-release contact lenses provide a good solution.
Chauhan went on to add that in order to become effective drug-delivery vehicles, the contact lenses had to achieve a balance. They should be able to extend the drug release period without producing a negative effect on vision or obstructing the path of oxygen to the eye, Chauhan said.
