Nano Encapsulation technology augmentation for Intra Ocular Lens (IOL)

The advancement in manufacturing technology has fuelled the innovation and growth of the ophthalmic lens market. Material fabrication, characterization, and utilization technologies have made the industry mature exponentially which creates greater value for the end-users. The Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) implants have a larger user group and this propelled the manufacturer to innovate and retain the market share.

Our Customer’s Business

Our customer is a leading ophthalmic lens company and caters to the market with wide varieties of the spectacle lens, contact lens, and IOLs. They are an innovation-driven company and the market mandates this trait due to stiff competition.

Challenge

Our customer ventured to create an ophthalmic lens that absorbs the harmful UV rays from the atmospheric sunlight. This creates a beneficial value to the users by reducing the risk of ocular aging that leads to early cataract or other extreme ophthalmic conditions.

DataTheta’s Approach and Solution

DataTheta analyzed the available technologies that may be used to achieve the goal. We identified three methodologies of preparation and the results are as follows
Impregnation of light-absorbing agent: The polymerized lens is immersed in a bath containing the coating mixture and post-processed. This method does not support the current manufacturing setup of the customer and adds cost to retrofit the processing unit.
Direct coating of light-absorbing agent: Certain alterations are made on the light-absorbing mixture and applied on the lens medium. The layer thickness consistency is variation and the variation of mechanical properties of the lens strata are the two main caveats.
Modified bulk-liquid formulation: The most certain methodology is to modify the formulation of the bulk liquid with light-absorbing additive. Though the manufacturing processing supports the method, the chemical composition needs to optimized. A suboptimal recipe resulted in the yellowing of the polymerized lens strata due to the interference of the new light-absorbing additive.

The best way to reach the goal is

Encapsulating the light-absorbing additive in a nano-sized, non-interfering encapsulant and coat it or add it in the bulk liquid. This may be polymerized by the existing process conditions. Also, this needs a reformulation of the bulk-liquid that accommodates the nano encapsulant.
On detailed study and analysis, we provided the preparation methodology of the bulk-liquid and the encapsulant. This was later perfected for properties such as FRET, refractive index, Yellowness Index, and light transmittance.

Result

DataTheta’s expertise enabled the customer to initiate the research and product development in a demanding timeline. This intervention has borrowed the technology from the drug discovery industry and cross-pollinated for the IOL formulation. The technology is well-tailored to fit the existing manufacturing process, which resulted in rapid go-to-market and reduced cost of technology.

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