Companies ink deal for anti-bacterial lenses

Sydney, Australia–Biosignal Ltd. and the Institute for Eye Research have signed an agreement with what they are calling "a major contact lens manufacturer" to develop an anti-bacterial daily disposable and other frequent-replacement contact lenses for release in the United States and Europe.

The deal, inked as a "memorandum of understanding," includes the development of anti-bacterial contact lenses that would prevent contact-lens wearers from getting eye infections. Daily disposable contact lenses represent a new segment for Biosignal and complement the development of anti-bacterial extended-wear lenses, the company noted.

Biosignal will fund research and development of anti-bacterial extended-wear lenses, and it will have exclusive negotiation rights during that 16-month phase to use the technology as the basis for a future royalty agreement. Final testing under the R&D agreement will be done in a small, in-house human study in 2006, with the goal of launching anti-bacterial, daily disposable lenses within 2 or 3 years.

It is based on anti-biofilm technology that was developed after it was discovered that the eastern Australian seaweed Delisea pulchra produced natural furanones that disable bacteria's ability to colonize.