CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS OIS COVERAGE
What Drives Drug Delivery Strategies in Ophthalmology? by Olawale Salami
D
rug delivery technologies are often designed to improve the pharmacological and therapeutic properties of already approved drugs. While they offer an obvious way of tackling high unmet needs, like treatment burden reduction or creating lifecycle management solutions for existing products, these strategies are still not widely adopted by many companies, but instead looked upon opportunistically.
Are we there yet? During a panel discussion at the OIS Retina Innovation Showcase — held on September 10, 2020 — Dr. Sharon Bakalash, founder and CEO at SB Strategic Development Consultants, an expert in drug delivery technologies, along with other expert panelists in the field, shared her thoughts on accelerating the most promising innovations in the field of ocular drug delivery.
32
Dr. Bakalash noted: “Historically, pharmaceutical companies have shown some unwillingness to acquire or invest in drug delivery technology companies”. What are the possible reasons for this? The panelists shared their thoughts. Dr. Joshua Horvath, Ph.D., director, device and packaging development, Genentech: “We don’t always have the skill sets in pharma companies to evaluate these technologies, specifically in ophthalmology, where we’ve seen many failures in drug delivery technologies — mostly at the preclinical level. While we might have the money to invest, we don’t have the workforce needed to thoroughly review these ideas. So we need our partners to do some of that legwork upfront.” Dr. Casey C. Kopczynski, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and co-founder Aerie Pharmaceuticals: “I think the reason for this is that for drug delivery technologies, there must be some form
| Dec 2020/Jan 2021
of relatively advanced proof-of-concept and a lead that demonstrates the power of the technology — that should at least be clinic ready. I think platform technologies, in general, are more difficult to value because you are trying to agree with a potential partner on the value of a product that perhaps hasn’t been fully contemplated yet.” Dr. Jim Cunningham, executive director of drug delivery and pharmaceutical development, Allergan: “I think the addition of novel delivery technologies to new molecules adds time, costs and risks. But the added risk is justified in areas like eye care when we’re focused on local delivery and where outcomes in real-world use are limited by poor compliance.” Dr. Reza Haque, MD, Ph.D., senior vice president and global head of ophthalmology innovation, Santen: “One of the critical challenges we have today in developing new drug delivery solutions is improving
