taking drops several times a day can be onerous for patients. A startup company in Cambridge, MA, has developed an alternative: contact lenses that can deliver drugs to the eye for a month or more.

Glaucoma affects 2.5 million Americans, and that number is expected to grow as the population ages. Many patients are prescribed eyedrops in the early stages of the disease, but because they have few symptoms and must take up to eight drops per day, between one-quarter and more than half of all patients fail to follow their medication schedules.

medicated contacts could be a more efficient way to deliver eye medications to people in remote or resource-poor areas.