Researchers in Boston have announced the development of breakthrough contact lenses capable of releasing a carefully regulated amount of medication into the eye over a period of time at adjustable rates.
According to ScienceDaily the new contact lenses address the problem created for many people who have to take eye drops at multiple points throughout a day. The application of eyedrops can increase the rate of blinking and tear production resulting in between 93 and 99% of the dose being lost instead of absorbed by the eye, a problem potentially eliminated by the new contact lenses.
Contact lenses which release drugs have been developed before, previous versions were not capable of providing a constant release of drug at a steady dosage, instead most of the drug would usually be released within the first couple of hours.
The new contact lenses developed by a team led by Daniel Kohane PhD have used a novel approach, a double layered contact lens with an inner layer composed of a drug-bearing copolymer film of PLGA. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) or PLGA has been approved by the FDA and is known to be highly biocompatible and biodegradable.
Contact lenses are currently approved for maximum wear periods of one month by the FDA, the prototype lenses produced by Dr Kohane were shown to be capable of dispensing a commonly used antibiotic found in eye drops consistently over the course of a month. Further tests proved the lenses capable of releasing the antibiotic at sufficient concentrations to inactivate pathogens for up to 100 days.
Dr Kohane plans to begin human testing of the new lenses as soon as possible and hopes that the new contact lenses will benefit the treatment of patients with conditions requiring regular daily eye drops such as glaucoma and dry eye.
