New drop for AMD treatment

Scientists at the University of Birmingham, UK, led by biochemist Dr Felicity de Cogan, from the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Microbiology and Infection are developing an eye drop that they say could revolutionise treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Laboratory research published last year in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS) showed that these eye drops have a similar therapeutic effect as the injected drug in rats.  Now the Birmingham scientists have taken their research one step further by investigating the effect of the eye drops in the larger eyes of rabbits and pigs, which are more similar to human eyes.

These studies, also published in IOVS, demonstrated that the eye drops can deliver a therapeutically effective amount of the drugs to the retina of the larger mammalian eye.

Dr de Cogan commented: “For several years, our team has focused on the challenge of delivering drugs to the back of the eye.  From the outset, we realised that delivering drugs through eye drops would mean that patients can administer their treatment themselves, and this would be less costly, save time for patients and healthcare providers, and reduce the potential complications that can arise from injections.

Now that we have shown that the eye drops work in the larger mammalian eye, and we welcome the commercial investment and expertise from Macregen so we can deliver a structured R&D programme that should bring concrete benefits to people with AMD and other eye diseases,” said Dr de Cogan.