Discovery and Potential Utility of a Novel Non-Invasive Ocular Delivery Platform

To this day, the use of oily eye drops and non-invasive retinal delivery remain a major challenge. Oily eye drops usually cause ocular irritation and interfere with the normal functioning of the eye, while ocular injections for retinal drug delivery cause significant adverse effects and a high burden on the healthcare system. Here, the authors report a novel topical non-invasive ocular delivery platform (NIODP) through the periorbital skin for high-efficiency anterior and posterior ocular delivery in a non-human primate model (NHP). A single dose of about 7 mg JV-MD2 (omega 3 DHA) was delivered via the NIODP and reached the retina at a Cmax of 111 µg/g and the cornea at a Cmax of 66 µg/g. The NIODP also delivered JV-DE1, an anti-inflammatory agent in development for dry eye diseases, as efficiently as eye drops did to the anterior segments of the NHP. The topical NIODP seems to transport drug candidates through the corneal pathway to the anterior and via the conjunctiva/sclera pathway to the posterior segments of the eye. The novel NIODP method has the potential to reshape the landscape of ocular drug delivery. This is especially the case for oily eye drops and retinal delivery, where the success of the treatment lies in the ocular tolerability and bioavailability of drugs in the target tissue.