Ocular surface bandage in eyedrop form – safer and more effective use of therapies to restore sight

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The 'fluid-gel' eyedrop that can deliver and _retain_ incorporated therapeutics on the surface of the eye for 6-8 hours. The material flows upon extrusion from an eyedropper before thickening, as a therapeutic, protective and resorbable layer over the eye, which is cleared away by blinking over several hours. The technology tackles the issue of rapid (1-15 mins) clearance of conventional eyedrops where maintaining effective doses, especially for conditions of the front of the eye, can require very frequent dosing or use with specialist, but very uncomfortable, contact lenses. Very frequent dosing can risk toxicity effects, is generally poorly tolerated by patients, and can diminish the perceived cost-benefit to payors. These factors threaten wide adoption of therapies. Lack of good products to even help _manage_ long-term eye conditions often means the working and social lives of otherwise healthy people are impacted.The commercial opportunity is in partnering with pharma/biotech companies to embed fluid-gel into their drug pipelines, enabling more effective use of each dose to maximise therapeutic effect. The technology is unique in that it has the protective advantage of a contact lens but is as easy to apply as any other eyedrop. The mechanical properties of the eyedrop can be tailored without complex chemical changes, enabling new drug products take the shortest regulatory pathway possible to the clinic. The fluid-gel is safe, can soon be made to clinical grade in a scalable manner and will enter human trials. The overall offer is in a unique and timely position for commercialisation.