Hypotonic gelling solutions for extended topical ocular drug delivery

Laura Ensign, PhD

Marcella E. Woll Professor of Ophthalmology
Vice Chair for Research in the Wilmer Eye Institute
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Friday, March 31st at 11:45 am

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Meeting ID: 943 2208 7810
Passcode: 038571

Eye drops are the dominant dosage form for the ocular route, and are used for a wide range of indications, including glaucoma, dry eye, inflammation, infection and allergy. However, as with all exposed epithelial surfaces, there are innate protective mechanisms that hinder efficient drug delivery to the eye. Thus, only a small fraction of drugs administered by eye drops is typically absorbed into the eye, often necessitating multiple doses per day. As the number of eye-drop doses per day increases, so does the potential for ocular surface irritation and systemic side effects, while patient compliance to the treatment regimen decreases. Here, I describe hypotonic gelling formulations that provide enhanced topical ocular drug delivery for a range of drugs for different ocular indications affecting both the anterior and posterior segment.

Laura M. Ensign, Ph.D., is the Marcella E. Woll Professor of Ophthalmology and the Vice Chair for Research in the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has secondary appointments in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Gynecology & Obstetrics, Infectious Diseases, and Oncology. Dr. Ensign’s research focuses on the principle of characterizing biological barriers in health and disease in order to design more efficacious formulations for prophylactic and therapeutic drug delivery. Here, Dr. Ensign will describe the development of a hypotonic gelling vehicle formulation for improved topical ocular drug delivery. The technology is currently in development by a start-up company, Novus Vision, for a variety of ocular diseases.

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