Last year, a team from the University of Birmingham invented a method of delivering macular degeneration drugs which are currently injected into the eyeball as eye drops. At the time they tested the drops on rats with significant success. Recently they have taken the tests a stage further by delivering the eye drops to larger mammals. The results give great cause for hope.

The latest tests involve rabbits and pigs, both of which have eyes which are more similar to human eyes. And in each case, the study showed that the eye drops can deliver a therapeutically effective dose of the drugs to the retina.

The team is working closely with a US company, Macgregan Inc, who own the pending patents for eye drops. It is hoped that clinical trials on humans could start as early as Spring 2019.

Sources:

1.Cision PR Newswire:
Researchers Are One Step Closer to Developing Eye Drops to Treat Age-related Macular Degeneration .

2.Investigative ophthalmology and visual science:
Topical Delivery of Anti-VEGF Drugs to the Ocular Posterior Segment Using Cell-Penetrating Peptide.