Eyenovia Inc. touted data from its phase II study evaluating the safety and efficacy of its high-precision ophthalmic microtherapeutics compared to conventional eyedropper treatment. The trial comes on the heels of a previous phase II study published in Therapeutic Delivery in October.
New York-based Eyenovia’s trial demonstrated that its microdosing achieved superior pharmacologic effects and bioavailability compared to dropper therapy, while reducing ocular side effects to 8% versus 66% for conventional topical treatment.
The company’s piezo-optimized microdrops disperse from the drug dispenser and coat the surface of the eye. “Conventional eyedroppers are still using century old pipette paradigm for instilling drugs into the eye with the precision rivaling the de-pixelated resolution of the first digital camera,” the company wrote on their website.
“It is encouraging to see compelling data from this study of Eyenovia’s microtherapeutic approach which may provide a path to improve the therapeutic index of many eyedrops,” director of the Shiley Eye Institute & the Hamilton Glaucoma Center Dr. Robert Weinreb said in prepared remarks. “This could have considerable impact as we grow the clinical application into chronic eye diseases such as glaucoma, dry eye and allergic eye disease, where the treatment paradigm has been hampered by overdose-related safety problems such as eye irritation, redness and even systemic cardiovascular and respiratory side effects.”
“Microtherapeutics may be a viable solution to the topical preservative-related toxicity we see with many eye therapies. It could have categorical improvement of many classes of drugs such as prostaglandin analogues for glaucoma, where side effects like PGA-related periorbitopathy are dose related,” Dr. Louis Pasquale, professor of ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, added.
