Top Devices Attracting Revenue In The Global Ophthalmology Drugs And Devices Market

Ophthalmology covers the specialized field of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and disorders associated with the eye; and the respective specialized doctors for treating such ailments are called ophthalmologist. The global ophthalmology drug & devices market supplies the therapeutics drugs, diagnostics, surgical-cum-monitoring devices and vision care devices (contact lenses, spectacles) that are necessary for its diagnosis and treatment.

Some of the common eye-related maladies like glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, cataract, retinal detachment, etc. nowadays have an increases rate of recurrence. The root cause for most of these ocular conditions can be traced back to the fluctuations in blood sugar levels, particularly when it shifts towards a higher value. So, people with diabetes are predicted to have a higher risk of blindness than people without diabetes. International Diabetes Federation claims, ‘The aging population have the highest probability of acquiring diabetes’. Therefore, the worldwide expanding geriatric population with higher cases of diabetes will be the major customer base since they will have higher chances of being diagnosed with various eye weaknesses. This will further enrich their expenditures on ophthalmologic treatments, further profiting the ophthalmology drug & devices market across the world.

Diseases driving the market growth

For the market to progress further by catering to the demands of a larger crowd that not only include the elderly but also those with severe optical anomalies, many advanced drugs are undergoing development for treating rare to common ophthalmic disease. Usually described as the most common cause of preventable, irreversible blindness across the globe, Glaucoma is a complex disease when the optic nerve encounters damage, progressively leading to complete blindness. Alpha-adrenergic agonists and Rho kinase inhibitor drugs are employed for its treatment, mostly in the form of eye drops.

Most of the retinal disorders like diabetic retinopathy can be cured when the drugs phenylephrine and cyclopentolate are used in combination. They can stimulate contraction and relaxation of the pupil-size controlling muscles respectively.

Dry eye occurs due to chronic lack of sufficient lubrication and moisture on the surface of the eye. Pain and damage can be alleviated by using drugs like lacrisert ophthalmic and carboxymethylcellulose sodium ophthalmic.

Top innovative devices used in the ophthalmology field

Just like most of the surgical developments, new potential procedures in ophthalmology have their fair share of risk. To alleviate these risks, technology has undergone simultaneous advancements, which can effectively treat retinal disease, on-demand therapeutics.

Wavefront Aberrometers: They measure the way a wavefront of light passes through the cornea and the crystalline lens. The distortions that occur as light travels through the eye called ‘aberrations’ that represents specific vision errors are quantified. The wavefront-driven LASIK surgery is employed to minimize the high order of eye aberrations which is achieved through the deployment of wavefront aberrometer to capture the light being reflected from the eye while determining the eye aberration.

ODTx (On Demand Therapeutics): It is a novel, injectable, biocompatible, nonresorbable device that is designed with multiple sealed reservoirs for effective storage of macromolecular drugs and their release is optimized through laser activation. When triggered, it elutes the drug from the selected reservoir into the vitreous periphery in the pars plana region of the eye where it is generally implanted. The inactivated ones remain untouched.

MicroPump: It is a micro-electromechanical system, implanted beneath the eye skin. It can distribute controlled dosages of drugs in the range of nano-liters whenever needed, either to the anterior or posterior segment of the eye.

Implandata’s EYEMATE system: This device is essentially used for diagnosis and monitoring of the glaucoma patients and is commercially available throughout the European Union (EU).

Carl Zeiss Meditec Humphrey Field Analyzer 3 (HFA3): It is used for both glaucoma management and glaucoma diagnostics. This advanced HFA3 device is designed for optimizing the clinical workflows that are used in the diagnosis and monitoring of eye diseases.

Spectral-Domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT): It is an advanced technique that uniquely collects all the information in a single axial scanning of the tissue with minimal scan time required and can deliver high-resolution axial images.

These advances make a significant difference in the patient’s quality of life. Evolution of technology sometimes does not seem to end well, but fortunately, patients will hopefully benefit a lot from all these improvements.