A new model of contact lens that delivers a drug has been shown to be useful against eye allergies. The product recently received authorization from the FDA, the US food and drug regulatory agency. It was developed by Johnson & Johnson Vision, the company’s arm focused on the eye area, and could be an important step in the advancement of medicine.
The drug that is used in this contact lens model is ketotifen. “It is a very well-established drug for the treatment of allergies, and eye drops with this drug already exist and they work very well”, says Emerson Castro, an ophthalmologist at Hospital SÃrio-Libanês.
THE sheet asked Johnson & Johnson do Brasil if there is any interest in bringing the product – officially called acuvue theravision with ketotifen – to the country and the company said that “conversations have already started with regulatory bodies and at the moment there is no further information to be shared”.
An article was published in 2019 in the journal Cornea in order to measure whether the use of contact lenses with this drug could have a positive and safe result for patients suffering from allergic conjunctivitis. The study is signed by scientists linked to Johnson & Johnson Vision and was also funded by the company.
Castro explains that allergic conjunctivitis involves several symptoms that impact the daily lives of people who suffer from the problem.
“More than scratching, the eye becomes red, watery, uncomfortable and inflamed in these cases of conjunctivitis. For those who don’t wear a lens, it already bothers, but for those who do, it’s worse because the lens can fog up and move out of place. It’s quite unpleasant “, he says.
For the research, the scientists followed the conventional model of an experimental group that used the product and another placebo group that had access to a common contact lens. In addition to these two, a third used the lens in one eye and in the other it was a device without ketotifen. In total, almost 250 people participated in two studies that were carried out separately, but that adopted the same methodology and that made up the analysis of the effectiveness of the equipment in the published article.
With the groups defined, the participants should wear the contact lens and qualify the state of allergic conjunctivitis 15 minutes after putting on the product. From there, people assessed the level of itchiness in the eye, starting at a point where there was no discomfort to a stage where the problem was persistent.
In addition to the participants, the investigators needed to similarly indicate their assessment of the discomfort in the participants.
There was also a similar measurement taken 12 hours after inserting the product — the maximum time a person should keep a contact lens in their eyes. In this case, the idea was to observe the duration of the effect of the lenses on the participants.
With these data, the groups were compared with each other in order to verify the effect of the product in the experimental group compared to the control group. A positive effect was observed in those who wore the contact lens with the drug both within 15 minutes of application and within 12 hours of starting use.
The study also evaluated the effect of the contact lens on eye redness. In this case, an advantage was observed in the experimental group, but the differences with the control participants were not so great as to bring clinical significance against this problem.
Thus, the researchers claim that the study results demonstrate similar efficacy to topical application of ketotifen.
Even so, for Castro, more than the release of this contact lens itself, the most interesting thing is the advance it represents for medicine.
For 20 years there has been talk of drug release by contact lens. That future never came, but now it has. So, more than a medication released by contact lens, it is a step that was taken to have the perspective of having other medications [nesse mesmo modelo] in the future
“For 20 years there has been talk of drug release by contact lens. This future never arrived, but now it has arrived. So more than a medication released by contact lens, it is a step that was taken to have the perspective of having other medications [nesse mesmo modelo] in the future”, says the ophthalmologist.
An example he cites is the treatment of infections in the cornea, in which sometimes it is necessary to place eye drops every hour. “That is, the patient has to wake up at dawn to drip. Suddenly, having a contact lens that releases the medication is a wonder.”
Even with these positive perspectives, the ophthalmologist emphasizes that the study had a small sample group and that, therefore, new studies with a greater participation are important.
“It is a phase three study, but it does not have a large sample size. Even so, this is an interesting path that can bring knowledge to new possibilities”, he concludes.
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