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Ocular Drug Delivery: Advances, Challenges and Applications Ocular Drug Delivery: Advances, Challenges and Applications pp 165-185 | Cite as

Other Advances in Ocular Drug Delivery



Ocular drug delivery has many challenges due to the physiology of the eye and the many natural barriers that most drugs need to encounter to permeate the intended tissues. Although traditional eye drops are invasive and convenient, they are inefficient for several ocular diseases due to their low ocular bioavailability and difficulty in delivering a drug to the posterior segment of the eye. Procedures such as implants or frequent intravitreal injections are invasive and challenging; however, this challenges present unique opportunities for innovative drug delivery approaches. New approaches to ocular drug delivery are aimed at: overcoming the disadvantages of existing therapies, overcoming short ocular contact time, increasing low bioavailability drugs to permeate tissues better, limiting dosing frequency, and reducing the invasiveness of some methodologies. This chapter discusses other significant advances in ophthalmic drug delivery such as gene therapy, iontophoresis, sonophoresis, and use of microneedle, hydrogels, and punctual plug delivery systems. A method for restoring light sensing in using retinal prosthetics, optogenetics, and chemical photoswitches are also discussed.


Advances in ocular delivery Iontophoresis Microneedles Gene therapy






Bennett L. (2016) Other Advances in Ocular Drug Delivery. In: Addo R. (eds) Ocular Drug Delivery: Advances, Challenges and Applications. Springer, Cham



