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Helping The Blind To See: Medtech Start-Ups Focus On Vision Restoration

In recent years, medtech start-ups have made great strides in developing technologies to treat eye disease such as cataracts, diminishing vision, and even dry eye. But the greatest leaps – or the most life changing – may have been executed by companies such as Second Sight Medical Products Inc. and Wicab Inc. that are finding ways to actually help blind people see.

In recent years, medtech start-ups have made great strides in developing technologies to treat eye disease such as cataracts, diminishing vision, and even dry eye. But the greatest leaps – or the most life changing – may have been executed by companies that are finding ways to actually help blind people see. Second Sight Medical Products Inc. remains the highest profile example of how medtech is achieving what was once impossible. Over the past two years, the US Food and Drug Administration gave a green light to the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, a camera-equipped system designed to at least partially restore vision of people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa. (SeeAlso see "Second Sight Shows The Way" - In Vivo, 23 March, 2015..)

The potential of Argus fueled Second Sight’s $34.8 million IPO last year. [See Deal]The company intends to put the proceeds toward expanding the market for Argus II by funding clinical trials to test the device in people who have lost vision due to age-related macular degeneration. Last month, the firm announced implanting Argus II in the first patient with AMD at the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital in the United Kingdom

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