The future of eye care is likely to involve specialized contact lens filled with medicine. The FDA has approved a new type of contact that releases an anti-histamine to help prevent itchy eyes from allergies for up to 12 hours. Treatments for other eye diseases may be on the way.
Since the 1970s, the antihistamine has been used. Until now, kettifen has been given through eye drops. The new product will be called Acuvue Theravision with Ketotifen. It is the first FDA-approved treatment to use a drug-eluting contact lens.
In clinical trials, the Theravision lens worked for as long as 12 hours and was more effective than a placebo lens. People can wear it to help with their eyesight as they would any other daily disposable contact.
The new contact lens may help keep more people in contact lens since they relieve eye itch for up to 12 hours without the need for allergy drops.
Drug-eluting contact lens technology has been worked on by scientists for decades. Ideally, these treatments would provide a more consistent dose of a medicine than eye drops do and would come with less pain than needles or other delivery methods. It has proven to be a challenge to find the right mix of materials that would allow contacts to work while slowly releasing their medicine. The FDA approval looks to be the first of many.
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