Abstract

OCULAR DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: A TECHNICAL NOTE

Vivek Dave*, Ashutosh Pareek, Sachdev Yadav, Sarvesh Paliwal

Department of Pharmacy, Banasthali University, Rajasthan, 304022, India.

ABSTRACT

The field of ocular drug delivery is one of the most interesting and challenging endeavors facing the pharmaceutical scientist for past 10- 20 years. In ophthalmic formulation to the eye like solutions, suspensions, and ointments are available in the market shows drawbacks such as increased precorneal elimination, blurred vision and high variability in efficiency. Eye is most interesting organ due to its drug disposition characteristics. For ailments of the eye, topical administration is usually preferred over systemic administration, before reaching the anatomical barrier of the cornea, any drug molecule administered by the ocular route has to cross the precorneal barriers. For development of new drug candidates and novel delivery techniques for treatment of ocular diseases has recently accelerated. Controlled drug delivery to the eye is restricted due to these limitation imposed by the efficient protective mechanism. Ideal ocular drug delivery must be able to sustain the drug release and to remain in the vicinity of front of the eye for prolong period of time. Consequently it is imperative to optimize ocular drug delivery, one of the way to do so is by addition of polymers of various grades, development of viscous gel, development of colloidal suspension or using erodible or non erodible insert to prolong the precorneal drug retention. Lastly understanding species anatomical differences is useful for interpreting toxicological and pathological responses to the eye and is important for human risk assessment of these important new therapies for ocular diseases. “Ocular drug delivery is one of the most interesting and challenging endeavours facing the pharmaceutical scientist...The anatomy, physiology and biochemistry of the eye render this organ exquisitely impervious to foreign substances...The challenge to the formulator is to outwit the protective barriers of the eye without causing permanent tissue damage...The ancient ophthalmic solutions, suspensions and ointment dosage forms are clearly no longer sufficient to combat some present virulent diseases...”

Keywords: Ocular drug delivery; intravitreal; subconjunctival; Ocular insert.