Long-acting ocular drug delivery technologies with clinical precedent

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Ocular long-acting injectables and implants (LAIIs) deliver drug at a controlled release rate over weeks to years. A reduced dose frequency eases the treatment burden on patients, minimizes the potential for treatment-related adverse effects, and improves treatment adherence and persistence.

Areas covered

This review provides a comprehensive landscape of ocular LAII drug delivery technologies with clinical precedent, including eight commercial products and 27 clinical programs. Analysis of this landscape, and the specific technologies with the greatest precedent, provides instructive lessons for researchers interested in this space and insights into the direction of the field.

Expert opinion

Further technological advancement is required to create biodegradable LAIIs with extended release durations and LAIIs that are compatible with a broader array of therapeutic modalities. In the future, ocular LAII innovations can be applied to diseases with limited treatment options, prophylactic treatment at earlier stages of disease, and cost-effective treatment of ocular diseases in global health settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Ocular drug delivery
• controlled release
• long-acting injectables and implants
• port delivery system
• biodegradable
• biodurable

Article highlights

• The design of an ocular long-acting injectable or implantable drug delivery technology is driven by the intended treatment location in the eye, the desired treatment duration, and the drug properties.

• Eight drug products using ocular LAII drug delivery technologies have been approved by the US FDA across multiple routes of administration and diseases areas. At least 27 additional programs advanced to clinical development with ocular LAIIs.

• Patient-centric design of biodurable and biodegradable technologies continues to reduce treatment burden via extended-release durations for a single treatment (i.e. up to three years) and reduced need for surgical intervention.

• The clinical and commercial success of ocular LAIIs has spurred technological advancement that paves the way for treatment with different therapeutic modalities (i.e. large molecules) and different treatment paradigms (i.e. refillable devices).

Declaration of interest

MN O’Brien Laramy and K Nagapudi are employees of Genentech, Inc. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.