ADVANCED APPROACHES AND EVALUATION OF OCULAR DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

  Eye is the most exclusive organ of the body and various drug delivery systems are used to deliver drug into eye but there are various limitations like rapid precorneal drug loss of conventional systems. Ocular disposition and elimination of a therapeutic agent is dependent upon physicochemical, microbiological, pharmaceutical properties and ophthalmic irritancy properties of ocular dosage forms as well as the relevant ocular anatomy and physiology. To improve ocular drug contact time, bioavailability and residence time, and to reduce the  patient discomfort, frequency of dose, as well as to slow down the elimination of the drug  there are significant efforts concentrating towards newer drug delivery systems for ophthalmic administration. This review focuses on the various new drug delivery systems applied in eye like inserts, in-situ gel, the newly developed particulate and vesicular systems like liposomes, pharmacosomes and discomes, niosomes, nanoparticles, iontophorosis, corneal shields, drug embedded contact lenses, ocular wafers etc and the most recent advanced approaches of the ocular delivery systems like  the delivery of the genes and proteins to the internal structures which were used in treating the diseases  caused due to genetic mutation, along with safety evaluation of ocular drug delivery formulations with some case studies.   Key words: Ophthalmic disorders, advanced ocular therapy, control drug delivery systems, vesicular systems, safety evaluation.