European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

AN OVERVIEW OF OCULAR DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: REFERENCE TO IMPREGNATE BARRIERS

*P. Deviga, 1K. Sundaramoorthy and R. Abinaya

ABSTRACT

Eye is the organ of sense of sight, situated in the orbital cavity. It is a delicate organ and which is protected by several structures. Delivery of ocular drugs to the targeted ocular tissues and maintenance of required therapeutic drug concentration is very difficult due to presence of various precorneal, dynamic and static barriers. Ocular bioavailability is usually only 1%-7% of the applied dose. To overcome barriers in ocular drug delivery, the alternate delivery routes to conventional ones allowing for more direct access to intended target sites and development of novel drug delivery systems providing better permeability, treatability and controlled release at target site. Ocular inserts are Convenient, safe, high patient acceptability, non-invasive and cost effective. It increases accurate dosing, overcome the side effects produced by conventional systems, provides sustained and controlled drug delivery, Increase the ocular bioavailability of drug by increasing the corneal contact time, provides targeting within the ocular globe so as to prevent the loss to other ocular tissues, overcome the protective barriers like drainage, lacrimation and conjunctival absorption, provides comfort, better compliance to the patient and to improve therapeutic performance of drug. Although, there are many advantages in the ocular delivery system, there is poor standardization techniques only available to evaluate the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic effects of drugs. This study summarizes the challenges of ocular drug delivery preparation and evaluation in the ocular drug delivery system.

Keywords: Ophthalmic inserts, Naso-lacrimal duct, Contact lens, Niosomes, Pharmacosomes, Discomes.