Scientists at Harvard Medical School have developed soft contact lenses which can ‘dispense’ prescription drugs over a period of weeks to the exact spot they are needed.
Eye drops are used to dispense most eye medications but they are inefficient in several ways. Only about 1 to 7 percent of eye drop medications are absorbed into the eye because most of it drips out; drugs applied to the eyes in this manner may be washed out after only thirty minutes or so. To add, patients find eye drops cumbersome and often forget to put them in. One of the biggest problems with using eye drops is that about 95 per cent of the medication goes where it’s not needed. Eye drops can also mix along with tears, which then drain into the nasal cavity and get into the bloodstream, where the drugs can cause serious side effects.
This new medical invention will solve all these problems. It will dispense eye medication more easily and effectively delivering a steady supply of medication directly to the eye and making it far more effective.
The technology consists of a biodegradable polymer film which is mixed with a medication (antibiotic) and coated with hydrogel, the same material used to make contact lenses. The film slowly releases the medication into the eye at a rate of 134 micrograms each day for 30 days.
Rather than being exposed to a sudden high dose of medication, the patient would get the right amount of medicine all the time. Drugs contained in a contact lens can be released slowly enough to stay in the eye. The same lenses could be used to correct vision where necessary.
Contact lenses which release drugs directly into the eye could soon be used to treat common eye diseases such as glaucoma, infections and other eye complaints as these lenses promise to be far more efficient than eye drops.
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