Johnson & Johnson has a potential alternative to eye drops with its drug-eluting Acuvue Theravision contact lens.
As far back as the early 1960s, researchers toyed with the idea of delivering medication through contact lenses.
Johnson & Johnson Vision (NYSE:JNJ) Director of Clinica Science Dr. Brian Pall told Drug Delivery Business News that patents back then disclosed how a soft contact lens of hydrogel material could be an effective vehicle for delivering medication to the eye.
On March 2, well over half a century since the notion was floated, Johnson & Johnson announced that the FDA approved its Acuvue Theravision with Ketotifen, making it the first drug-eluting contact lens authorized for marketing in the U.S. Having already been approved in Japan and Canada, Pall said it is the world’s first contact lens of its kind.
“[Eye drops] are just not a super-efficient way to deliver medication to a target tissue,” Pall said. “That’s what I believe is the primary reason so many people have been looking into how to develop a drug-eluting contact lens. I’m certainly proud to be part of the team that was able to finally get it across the finish line.”
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