While the phrase bionic retinas may conjure images of Steve
Austin in “The Six Million Dollar Man” or Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The
Next Generation,” technology to create vision where none, or very little,
exists, is not a television fantasy. Companies concentrating on damaged retinas
look poised for success as the technology inches toward measurable achievement.
While the phrase
bionic retinas may conjure images of Steve Austin in “The Six Million Dollar
Man” or Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” technology to
create vision where none, or very little, exists, is not a television fantasy.
Companies concentrating on damaged retinas look poised for success as the
technology inches toward measurable achievement.
“We will be approved
on the market in Europe this year,” said Bill Link, managing director at
Versant Ventures, an investor in Second Sight Medical Products Inc.
Second Sight, based in
Sylmar, Calif., is also looking at a U.S. Food and Drug Administration
submission at the end of 2011, according to Link. The company has raised $16
million in venture capital.
Second Sight’s system
uses a pair of glasses to send images to a receiver implanted on the retina. From
there, the image is transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve. The
device is targeted to patients who have lost most of their vision as a result
of retinal degeneration and whose nerve connections are still intact.
A similar approach is
being developed by Nano Retina Inc. of Herzliya Pituach, Israel, though Nano
Retina aims for much greater visual clarity than Second Sight, it says. “We
have a much higher resolution – about 1,000 pixels,” said Ra’anan Gefen,
managing director of the company. “Second Sight is the most advanced
(clinically) but on the other hand, it is really a limited device.”
According to Link,
Second Sight’s first-generation device offers 16 pixels while a
second-generation system will have 60. “They can read letters on a computer
screen, they can tell light from dark, they can see a line on the ground,” said
Link of people using Second Sight’s system.
Gefen, on the other
hand, is more ambitious. “We will give them back vision so that they can see
almost normally,” he said.
Gefen’s company was
founded as a joint venture with nanotech company Zyvex Labs LLC of Richardson,
Texas, and is backed by several million dollars from Rainbow Medical, an
Israeli business accelerator, according to Rainbow Founding Partner Yossi
Gross. Nano Retina is still a couple of years away from clinical studies, Gross
said.
Costs for the two
systems appear to be about the same. Link estimates Second Sight’s device will
sell for $50,000 to $100,000 per system; Gefen says Nano Retina’s will cost
around $60,000. Both companies said they expect much of that cost to be picked
up by insurance companies. Link said his portfolio company is currently in
discussion with potential payers.
Waiting in the wings
is a third player – Optobionics Corp. – which had raised around $50 million
from investors including Advanced Medical Optics Inc., Advanced Technology
Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, Medtronic Inc. and Polaris Venture Partners
and had taken its device through Phase II trials before hitting a snag in
fund-raising for Phase III trials.
“There was no appetite
to put in another $100 million,” said Alan Chow, chief executive of
Optobionics. As a result, his company entered bankruptcy in 2007, recently
relaunching after Chow bought the technology.
Unlike the other two
companies, Optobionics is pursuing a trickier and more costly approach:
restoring function to the damaged retina by using the device to stimulate the
rods and cones, rather than using the system as an adjunct to the retina.
Chow said he is
looking into ways to continue financing the Phase III development although he
said it might not be through venture financing.
Despite the lengthy
development times and funding challenges, those involved with the companies say
they are motivated by the importance of their work. “Everybody says that this
is a very ambitious project, but everybody admits that there is a real need
here,” said Gross.