CLs created to deliver drug dose

US researchers have developed a drug-dispensing contact lens designed for prolonged delivery of latanoprost for the treatment of glaucoma.

The contact lenses were designed by researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with materials that are FDA-approved for use on the eye.

As reported in the January 2014 issue of Biomaterials, the lenses were made by encapsulating latanoprost-polymer films in commonly used contact lens hydrogel. The plano or prescription lenses have a clear central aperture with a drug-polymer film in the periphery which helps control drug release.

Cornea specialist and lead author Joseph Ciolino said: ‘In general eye drops are an inefficient method of drug delivery that has notoriously poor patient adherence. The contact lens design can potentially be used as a treatment for glaucoma and as a platform for other ocular drug delivery applications.’