Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Pharmacy, Medical Biology Centre, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL, UK
  • 2 Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, 161 Cathedral Street, Glasgow, G4 0RE, Scotland
  • 3 Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Selangor, Puncak Alam Campus, 42300, Bandar Puncak Alam, Kuala Selangor, Malaysia
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Medical Biology Centre, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 7BL, UK. r.thakur@qub.ac.uk
Drug Deliv Transl Res, 2021 Aug 11.
PMID: 34382178 DOI: 10.1007/s13346-021-01043-z

Abstract

The delivery of drugs to the posterior segment of the eye remains a tremendously difficult task. Prolonged treatment in conventional intravitreal therapy requires injections that are administered frequently due to the rapid clearance of the drug molecules. As an alternative, intraocular implants can offer drug release for long-term therapy. However, one of the several challenges in developing intraocular implants is selecting an appropriate in vitro dissolution testing model. In order to determine the efficacy of ocular implants in drug release, multiple in vitro test models were emerging. While these in vitro models may be used to analyse drug release profiles, the findings may not predict in vivo retinal drug exposure as this is influenced by metabolic and physiological factors. This review considers various types of in vitro test methods used to test drug release of ocular implants. Importantly, it discusses the challenges and factors that must be considered in the development and testing of the implants in an in vitro setup.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.