By Lutz Franzen and Florian Unger; Formulation Development, Bayer Pharma AG

1. General Overview

On 20th and 21st of June 2016 the International Association for Pharmaceutical Technology (APV) hosted a “high-toned seminar” on ocular drug delivery. At the venue in Berlin an audience from academic and industrial research listened to a comprehensive mix of overview talks and case studies. In the following article we give a brief introduction to the topic of ocular drug delivery and summarize the key findings presented at the seminar.

Arto Urrti from Helsinki University opened with an introductory talk on “Ocular anatomy, physiology, pharmacokinetics & pK modeling“. Pascal Furrer from the University of Geneva followed with a comprehensive overview on ocular dosage forms and the accompanying regulatory requirements.

From a drug delivery perspective the eye can be separated in two parts, the anterior and the posterior segment. The anterior segment includes the cornea, aqueous humor, iris, lens and the conjunctival tissue. The posterior segment is comprised of the vitreous humor surrounded by the choroid, the retina including the macular and adjoining vasculature. In order to account for the anatomical differences a distinction between treatments of diseases in the anterior and pos- terior segment has to be made.

Featured Article in APV Drug Delivery Focus Group Newsletter – 1/2016 | December