Market Assessment - Strategic assessment of injectable, in situ gelling materials for ocular drug delivery

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Diseases in the eye are becoming increasingly common as the population ages; however, they remain notoriously difficult to treat. For instance, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects over 1.4 million Canadians and is the leading cause of vision loss in Canada. While the advent of anti-VEGF agents, a specific class of drugs, has significantly improved the prognosis and outcomes for many of these patients, they require intraocular injections every one to two months to maintain their effectiveness. Similarly, glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness, requires patients to adhere to a challenging regime of eye drops multiple times each day, causing patients to struggle with compliance. Yet, if these conditions progress to vision loss, patients have been shown to require greater assistance with daily activities, suffer high incidences of depression and anxiety, and have twice the risk of falls; this all results in a substantial decrease in their quality of life. We propose a new delivery system that would work with different therapeutics for a variety of conditions. This would reduce treatments from monthly to bi-annually, increasing both safety and convenience for patients and reducing the burden on the healthcare system. We request funds to complete a Market Assessment to determine which ocular disease condition is best suited to initial development, which will allow us to then create a business plan for successful technology transfer and commercialization.