A Peek down the pipeline: Emerging drug delivery options for retinal disease

The innovative approaches of these emerging ophthalmic devices and pharmaceuticals offer promising options for drug delivery that will likely strengthen the vitreoretinal specialist's armamentarium for patients with AMD, RVO, DME, and posterior uveitis in the future. Intravitreal implants with refillable reservoirs and suprachoroidal delivery via microcatheter delivery or hollow microneedles represent a few of the potential routes whereby sustainedrelease drug delivery may be achieved. In addition, the vehicles (Verisome technology, nanotechnology, others) by which medications are administered via intravitreal injections may also offer longer-term options to reduce the treatment burden of frequent injections and clinic visits. As evidenced by intravitreal implant options previously studied, the ophthalmic benefit-risk ratio, as well as the cost of these medications, will be critical to their implementation and widespread acceptance in the clinical setting. However, patients with retinal disease will likely have additional therapeutic options in the future as these promising drug delivery platforms move forward in development.