How can an eyedropper improve patients’ adherence ?

Nemera’s objective was to come up with an innovative system to deliver eyedrops easily into patients’ eyes and limit negative side effects, in order to improve their compliance to treatment.

Prospective studies were conducted with an independent agency. We enrolled and interviewed 210 patients diagnosed with chronic eye diseases (glaucoma and dry eyes mainly). Patients were observed when instilling drops into their eye and questioned regarding the improvements they would make to their current eyedropper to get a better product. The interviews were thoroughly analyzed and used to design a novel product that would make their lives easier.

Reducing side effects is critical for patients’ adherence and ophthalmic preparations without preservatives are strongly recommended.

Patients’ feedback was that the single dose units were too difficult to handle.

Trying different preservative-free multidose systems, the interviewees did not like the pump systems and preferred the bottles with screw-caps they were familiar with. They favored soft easy-to-squeeze bottles and systems that deliver one drop at a time into their eyes. Some mentioned the need for a colored tip to better target the eye. Of course all these improvements should not be detrimental to patients’ safety.

Nemera developed an innovative system combining all patients’ needs: a safe preservative-free multidose bottle with a blue tip that makes consistent drops one by one. This new product was tested by patients and was chosen as their preferred eyedropper. 43% of patients think that Novelia^® would enhance compliance to their current treatment.

Now it is well perceived by the patients across the 4 continents.

In order to improve the patient experience and adherence, Nemera can provide new features brought by electronic add-on technology.

[1](Jennifer L. Stone, Alan L. Robin, Gary D. Novack, David W. Covert, Gerald D. Cagle. An Objective Evaluation of Eyedrop Instillation in Patients With Glaucoma. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127(6):732–736. doi:10.1001/archophthalmol.2009.96)

Nemera is introducing the completely new and innovative electronic add-on for ophthalmic droppers, which combines an enhanced patient experience with compliance.

As it has been designed to fit with our preservative-free multidose eye dropper Novelia^®, we called this new technology e-Novelia^®, even if it could be adapted to other products.

Nemera is a leader in design, development and manufacturing of drug delivery devices. Following the growing trend of connected products and considering the low patient adherence in ophthalmic treatments, Nemera has developed an electronic add-on to assist patients in administrating their treatments. Indeed 60% of patients don’t take their treatment correctly.

An add-on is an electronic system which could be added to an existing mechanical device.

Our smart ophthalmic add-on not only improves monitoring and compliance but also offers other key benefits: improved ergonomy and user friendliness, improved drop control and reusable add-on.

Our smart ophthalmic add-on technology can improve patients’ interaction with their drug by assisting them with:

• Digitalized and interactive Instructions For Use through mobile application and on-device screen
• Reminders to take their dose
• Reminders to reload the device with a new drug bottle
• Information about their treatment: expiry date, dosage, batch number
• Feedback and guidance to use their device the right way: tilt and shaking indication, buzzer, detection of wrong usage
• Improved ergonomy and user friendliness through an eye cup and a bottle squeeze facilitator

e-Novelia^® showcases several electronic features, which could be transferred across multiple device platforms:

• Compliance rate
• Treatment history
• Remaining volume indication
• Keep eye open (lights)
• Delivery force monitoring
• User instruction
• Smartphone application and notifications
• Shaking formulation indication
• RFID tag on eyedropper bottle to collect data

This new technology will be useful not only for patients, but for the entire industry: the healthcare professionals will benefit from the dose tracking analysis and will be able to adjust the treatment; the researchers will perform more efficient clinical studies; the pharma companies will also use the data collection to launch better performing drugs; the payers will be able to check if the patients comply with their prescriptions.