Emerging Trends in Ocular Drug Delivery: A Review on Recent Updates

Abstract

The distance from cornea to retina (1.7 cm) appears to be the difficult path for most of the small molecule therapeutics. Ocular drug delivery is extreme difficult task owing to complexity and intricate barriers of the eye. However, there is an urgency and need to overcome these barriers for the treatment of sight threatening ocular complications. Delivery of drugs through topical application is compromised by physiological, static, dynamic and metabolic barriers. Currently, intravitreal therapy is a gold standard for targeting therapeutic entities to the posterior segment of the eye. Various viable platforms using topical non-invasive to invasive techniques are currently under development and may progress into efficient delivery platforms. In this review, recent advances/developments in ocular delivery were discussed.