Extended drug delivery by contact lenses for glaucoma therapy.

We combine laboratory-based timolol release studies and in vivo pharmacodynamics studies in beagle dogs to evaluate the efficacy of glaucoma therapy through extended wear contact lenses. Commercial contact lenses cannot provide extended delivery of ophthalmic drugs and so the studies here focused on increasing the release duration of timolol from ACUVUE TruEye contact lenses by incorporating vitamin E diffusion barriers. The efficacy of timolol delivered via extended wear contact lenses was then compared to eye drops in beagle dogs that suffer from spontaneous glaucoma. The lenses were either replaced every 24h or continuously worn for 4 days, and the pharmacodynamics effect of changes in the intraocular pressure (IOP) of timolol from the ACUVUE TruEye contact lenses can be significantly increased by incorporation of vitamin E. The in vivo studies showed that IOP reduction from baseline by pure contact lens on daily basis was comparable with that by eye drops but with only 20% of drug dose, which suggested higher drug bioavailability for contact lenses. In addition, by inclusion of vitamin E into the lenses, the IOP was reduced significantly during the 4-day treatment with continuous wear of lens.