The estimated number of visually impaired people in the world is 285 million, with 39 million blind people. About 65 percent of visually impaired people and 82 percent of all blind people are 50 years or older. Four major blinding diseases are age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic macular edema, and glaucoma, due to their whole or partial impact on the posterior segment of the eye.
Current therapeutic options for these diseases may at best manage the condition, slowing or halting further deterioration or disease progression. New breakthrough treatments would benefit from robust sustained delivery of the drug to the target tissues in the posterior segment and, importantly, enhance compliance of patients with long-term treatment regimens for these chronic diseases--for example, avoiding or reducing the need for frequent injections. These drug delivery challenges to the posterior segment of the eye, for both small and large molecules, provide a significant market opportunity for the development of new therapies based on enhanced drug delivery methods and technologies.
