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Unanswered questions hinder development of drops for macular disease
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AMSTERDAM — Too many unanswered questions hinder development of eye drops for delivery to the back of the eye, one corporate executive told colleagues here.
“I find it, at this point, very, very difficult to develop eye drops for the back of the eye in the face of all the questions to which we don’t have answers,“ Vice President and Head of GSK Ophthalmology Claudine Bruck said at the Ophthalmology Futures European Forum. For one, there is a need to identify which tissue – retinal or choroidal – to target. Whereas therapeutic levels of drug may penetrate one, it may not penetrate the other, and which to target remains unanswered.
Claudine Bruck
Patient compliance with a topical drug is another issue. “Even though patients know they need to take the drops, they don’t,” Cynthia Macfarlane, president and CEO of ForSight Labs, said.
The potential for visual loss with age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, as well as the dosing requirements and types of formulations that would be necessary, were the impetus for the smaller company to take drops “off the table” as a potential macular therapy, she said.
Cynthia Macfarlane
“We didn’t want to have a great therapy and not have it used,” Macfarlane said.
Disclosure: Bruck is vice president and head of GSK Ophthalmology. Macfarlane is president and CEO of ForSight Labs.