Ophthalmic devices for sustained delivery of active compounds

An ophthalmic product, comprising:

• a sealed package including a packaging solution and a soft hydrogel contact lens, wherein the hydrogel contact lens comprises a polymer matrix and a guest material which is not covalently linked to the polymer matrix but distributed therein,
• wherein the hydrogel contact lens has a capability of gradually releasing the guest material during wear over at least about 6 hours after storing in the packaging solution for at least about one month,
• wherein the hydrogel contact lens is produced by cast-molding in a mold of a fluid prepolymer composition without being subjected to any extraction processes,
• wherein the prepolymer composition comprises the guest material and an actinically-crosslinkable prepolymer from which the polymer matrix is formed by polymerization,
• wherein the guest material comprises a drug which is free of any groups capable of being actinically crosslinked with the actinically-crosslinkable prepolymer and present in an amount sufficient to be released from the contact lens over at least about 6 hours of wearing time,
• wherein the actinically-crosslinkable prepolymer is a polyhydroxyl compound having a molecular weight of at least about 2000 and comprising from about 0.5 to about 80%, based on the number of hydroxyl groups in the poly(vinyl alcohol), of units of the formula I, and II, I and Ill, or I and II and Ill
• in which
• the molecular weight refers to a weight average molecular weight, Mw, determined by gel permeation chromatography,
• R is linear or branched alkylene having up to 12 carbon atoms,
• R1 is hydrogen or lower alkyl having up to seven carbon atoms,
• R2 is an ethylenically unsaturated, electron-withdrawing, crosslinkable radical having up to 25 carbon atoms,
• R3 is hydrogen, a C1-C6 alkyl group or a cycloalkyl group,
• R7 is a primary, secondary, tertiary amino group, or a quaternary amino group of the formula N+(R′)3X−, in which each R′, independently of the others, is hydrogen or a C1-C4 alkyl radical and X is a counterion,
• R8 is the radical of a monobasic, dibasic or tribasic, saturated or unsaturated, aliphatic or aromatic organic acid or sulfonic acid.