Ophthalmic Drug Delivery System: Challenges and Approaches

Promising management of eye ailments take off effective concentration of drug at the eye for sufficient period of time. Ocular drug delivery is hampered by the barriers protecting the eye. The bioavailability of the active drug substance is often the major hurdle to overcome. Conventional ocular dosage form, including eye drops, are no longer sufficient to combat ocular diseases. This article reviews the constraints with conventional ocular therapy, essential factors in ocular pharmacokinetics, and explores various approaches like eye ointments, gel, viscosity enhancers, prodrug, penetration enhancers, microparticles, liposomes, niosomes, ocular inserts, implants, intravitreal injections, nanoparticles, nanosuspension, microemulsion, in situ-forming gel, iontophoresis, and periocular injections to improve the ocular bioavailability of drug and provide continuous and controlled release of the drug to the anterior and posterior chamber of the eye and selected pharmacological future challenges in ophthalmology. In near future, a great deal of attention will be paid to develop noninvasive sustained drug release for both anterior and posterior segment eye disorders. Current momentum in the invention of new drug delivery systems hold a promise toward much improved therapies for the treatment of visionthreatening disorders. of eye.[2] Topical ocular medications do not reach the posterior segment of the eye. Posterior segment (retina, vitreous, choroid) can be treated by high drug dosage regimen given intravenously or by intravitreal administration or implants or by periocular injections. Currently, the posterior segment drug delivery is a rapidly growing interest area in ophthalmic drug delivery.[3] The goal of pharmacotherapeutics is to treat a disease in a consistent and predictable fashion. A significant challenge to the figure 1: Schematic presentation of the ocular structure with the routes of drug kinetics illustrated[4] Invited Review Access this article online Website: www.sysrevpharm.org Quick Response Code: DOI: 10.4103/0975-8453.75042