A stalwart overcoming the challenges of ophthalmic drug delivery with innovative solutions: Eximore

Most ophthalmic treatments rely on eye drop medication administered in outpatient settings. It may appear an easy way to administer medication, but patients, especially those with compromised eyesight, often experience difficulties in eye drop administration. This is where ocular drug delivery comes in. It has many advantages, such as sterilization, ease of eye drop formulation, less irritation, increased pre-corneal residence time, and enhancement in the ocular bioavailability of drugs. Ocular drug delivery ranges from simple sterile eye drops for the ocular surface to complex implants for intraocular tissue.

Various companies are innovating in the ocular drug delivery space, but Eximore stands out from the rest. Eximore has developed a non-invasive patented punctal plug drug delivery system that addresses the challenges of eye drops while also overcoming the challenges of plug design. Eximore is leveraging the high retention, tolerability, and safety of today’s well-proven conventional punctal plugs in the design of its novel plug that uses nano-particle technology to mold drugs into the actual plug itself.

In conversation with Eyal Sheetrit, Co-Founder and CEO of Eximore

Q. As a journalist, I find Eximore quite striking. From the emotional branding standpoint, it has that appeal. How did you come up with the brand name? And please brief us about the history so far. 

Eximore developed a new concept to replace ophthalmic eyedrops, especially for patients with chronic ophthalmic diseases such as glaucoma and dry eye syndrome. The idea that gave birth to the product was developed by Prof. Guy Ben Simon, an ophthalmologist at Sheba Medical Center in Israel and one of the company’s co-founders, who came up with the idea of using the tear duct area to release ophthalmic drugs instead of manually inserting eye drops.

We realized there was a problem with responsiveness or compliance with so many patients. So, we offer them the chance to forget about administering medicine. They only need a small plug, one millimeter in size, that you can hardly see or feel. It is straightforward to insert without surgery or a complicated procedure, and in addition, it is also inexpensive. It is a substitute for drops. The ophthalmologist inserts the device into the tear duct, using a procedure that lasts less than half a minute and takes place in the ophthalmologist’s office. The patient goes home, the plug works in the background, and you only need to go to the doctor for a check-up and replace the device during your next routine visit after about six months.

Q. What is ocular drug delivery? And how does the presence of anatomical and physiological barriers make drug delivery challenging?

Ocular drug delivery is a different new mode of delivering drugs to the eye. This mode of delivery has enormous advantages compared to today’s eye drop solutions. Given the intricacy of the anatomy and physiology of the eye, it is challenging to deliver an ophthalmic drug effectively to a specific ocular site. Several barriers have to be overcome for successful ocular drug delivery. For example, dilution of a drug by tears, clearance of a drug, drug permeation issues concerning the ocular surfaces of the eye (cornea, sclera, choroid, etc.) Accordingly, different drug delivery systems have been devised for the controlled release of drugs to various parts of the eye.

Most of today’s developing strategies are invasive solutions like Intravitreal implants or injectable particulate systems. Those invasive strategies are less attractive to the majority of the patients. However, to date, no minimally invasive solutions such as drug-eluting contact lenses or punctal plugs have been developed successfully to treat diseases such as glaucoma and dry eye.

Q. What innovative methodologies does your company implement to simplify routes of drug administration?

Our technology platform allows us to tailor the physical properties and drug release profiles to meet specific therapeutic ophthalmic applications. We have used this platform to engineer the biocompatible product for managing ocular diseases. Our innovation is in the ability to manufacture plugs that can hold an extremely high capacity of medication in an extremely small space and also a method to control the release of the drug from the plug into the eye. The innovation is based on nano-technology materials that offer a broad surface area that can be loaded with enough drugs for an extended treatment period. What is so interesting here is that although it would seem that there is not so much space in such a tiny plug, these materials offer a vast surface area (1 gram of this material has a surface area of 600 square meters!). With the unique formulation of the plug ingredients, we created nano-channels which the drugs can go through with a specific dose to achieve a slow release of the drugs. While the tears touch the plug surface, a diffusion force pulls the drug slowly towards the outside from the plug to the eye environment. The plug materials and process are not expensive to manufacture or produce. It can easily be scaled up to respond to market demands without needing an external energy source. The materials are all biocompatible and can be used inside the human body.

Q. What do you think are the biggest challenges your industry will face in the next five years? And how do you plan to mitigate those challenges?

Patient non-compliance, deviation from the therapeutic window, and overuse are known challenges to the efficacy of eye drops. These challenges lead to vision loss (such as in Glaucoma) or suboptimal outcomes that cannot be effectively controlled or monitored by a physician. Additionally, patients can experience side effects from preservatives contained in eye drops. Alternatives to eye drops have been attempted, yet these novel attempts have faced design and regulatory challenges to date. Eximore has developed a non-invasive patented punctal plug drug delivery system that addresses the challenges of eye drops while also overcoming the challenges of plug design. Eximore is leveraging the high retention, tolerability, and safety of today’s well-proven conventional punctal plugs in the design of its novel plug that uses nano-particle technology to mold the drug into the actual plug itself.

Q. What does the road ahead look like for Eximore? Do you have anything new coming up?

The company is now raising money for the second phase of clinical trials in both indications. The goal is to manufacture and export the products worldwide, from the USA and Europe to the Far East.

Q. What is your final message to The Silicon Review readers and your current and future customers and partners?

Most visual impairment is preventable or curable; Eximore’s innovation is the answer to better eye health, which affects the quality of life and has economic and social benefits.

Meet the leader behind the success of Eximore

Eyal Sheetrit, Co-Founder and CEO of Eximore, is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in product development in the medical and biotech fields. He acquired vast experience as an innovation manager at Ethicon Biosurgery (J&J) and as a strategic consultant. He holds a BSc and MSc in biotechnological and biomedical engineering from the Technion and is a graduate of the Faculty of Business Administration at Tel Aviv University. He co-founded the company in 2013.

“Eximore’s innovative approach uses patented technology to mold active drug into the nano-layered plug itself, leveraging the permeability/porosity of the plug.”