/ 28 October 2004

No more eyedrops

Scientists in Singapore have invented a contact lens capable of releasing precise amounts of medication to treat glaucoma and other eye diseases so doing away with eye drops, the developers said on Thursday.

The government-backed Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) is now looking for partners to commercialise the product, which also minimises the harmful seepage of drugs to other body organs.

”Glaucoma accounts for 20% of blindness in Singapore and is rapidly becoming the second major cause of blindness in Asia after cataracts,” the IBN said in a statement.

”Contact lens wearers with dry eyes may also benefit from this invention as the material can be modified to produce self-lubricating contact lenses,” it added.

Most opthalmic medications are now delivered through eye drops but the drugs usually mix with tears and reach other organs through the bloodstream, potentially causing serious side effects.

IBN developed a simple method of making entirely new polymeric lens materials whereby drugs are added directly into the solution that eventually becomes the lens, a spokesperson said.

The drugs sit in the structure of the lens material and are released into tiny channels from which they slowly leak onto the surface of the eye.

The delivery system can be tailored to different drugs, said IBN scientist Edwin Chow, a co-inventor of the contact lens.

”By altering the size, concentration and structure of these polymeric nano-particles, we can further control the drug delivery rates, while retaining the appropriate lens clarity,” he said. ‒ Sapa-AFP