Eye Implant To Restore Sight Goes on Market in European Union

A new technology that uses a retinal implant to restore vision in patients with a type of age-related macular degeneration is launching in the European Union after winning regulatory approval.California-based Science Corporation says its Prima system is the first treatment shown in trials to restore functional central vision to patients with geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness that affects more than five million people globally. It will be commercially available across 30 European countries. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans could be eligible for the treatment.The first commercial implant of Prima is expected soon in Germany and the company hopes to implant it in hundreds of patients next year. The company says it is still working with insurers on pricing.The disease causes the progressive destruction of photoreceptors at the center of the retina — essentially creating a black spot in the middle of a patient’s field of vision — causing the loss of the ability to read, recognize faces, and ultimately blindness. There was previously no viable treatment.The Prima system uses an implanted chip on the retina that is paired with specialized glasses. The glasses project light to the implant, which converts it into electrical stimulation signals that are sent to the brain. A “zoom-in” feature in the glasses provides patients with the ability to magnify letters.Clinical tests showed that patients who follow a training process after the device is implanted show the most improvement. “The patients that participated in the rehabilitation, used the device regularly, really did much better. We think both that’s because they learn how to use the device more fluidly, but also there’s some neuroadaptation that occurs,” Science Corporation’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Dr. Frank Brodie, said in an interview with Ophthalmology Times.A clinical trial in five countries found 84 percent of patients reported the ability to read letters, numbers, and words after the implant. The mean improvement of eyesight was enough for patients to read five lines to the letter chart.The Food and Drug administration has not approved the implanted chips in America but it has a breakthrough device designation and humanitarian use device designation that helps speed the review process. Science Corporation hopes to have it available in America next year.Science Corporation is also developing other devices that can be implanted into the brain to control neurological systems. The company, founded in 2021, is valued at $1.5 billion. It has raised approximately $490 million to develop new products. It is the second most valuable brain implant company in America behind Elon Musk’s Neuralink, according to Bloomberg.“There is a profound sense in which the brain is the ultimate central object of medicine: it is the only organ which is not, even in principle, transplantable, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that engaging with it directly as an information processing system facilitates extraordinary effect sizes,” Dr. Brodie said.

Eye Implant To Restore Sight Goes on Market in European Union

Eye Implant To Restore Sight Goes on Market in European Union

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