Improving ophthalmic drug delivery by novel formulations: peptidic hydrogels and nanoparticles

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"NanOptima has a mission to improve efficacy and safety of ophthalmic medications by improving delivery of APIs.As populations grow older, more and more people need treatment for sight-threatening eye conditions. ""The lifetime risk, of sight loss or blindness requiring intervention or treatment, is estimated to be: nearly **1 in 5 people for permanent sight loss or blindness**; and over 1 in 3 people for any sight loss or blindness. More than two million people in the UK live with sight loss that is severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives. £28.1 billion was the cost to the UK of sight loss in the adult population in 2013\. This includes a direct healthcare cost estimated to be £3 billion each year"" (RNIB, 2017).Current treatment methods either carry significant risk, or do not work effectively. Eye drops are the most common way of delivering medications for glaucoma and inflammation, but lose effectiveness because \>90% of the drops are washed away upon blinking, and there is a 30% non-compliance rate, which can lead to blindness. NanOptima is developing advanced soft, transparent gels to retain medicines on the eye surface for longer, and nanoparticles to increase penetration of medications into the eye.Conditions near the back of the eye, especially macular degeneration and the complications of diabetes (two of the leading causes of blindness, impacting 570,000 people in the UK), must be treated with injections, which are expensive, risky, and very unpleasant for patients. NanOptima will use our novel gel technology to create depots that can be injected via a very fine needle, and deliver treatments for months at a time, so that current injection regimes can be made less frequent and invasive. We will also explore whether nanotechnology eye drops can extend the intervals between injections. NanOptima, PeptigelDesign Technologies, and Tecrea, are three small UK research companies joining their complementary forces to improve the experiences of patients with eye problems, and to build the UK science base in pharmaceuticals for treating eye diseases. Our work will be in close collaboration with leading academic and clinical ophthalmic experts at Ulster University, with senior industry advisors."