Eyeworld

18 | EYEWORLD | OCTOBER 2020 ASCRS NEWS Contact Holland: eholland@holprovision.com Lindstrom: rllindstrom@mneye.com Link: bill@williamjlink.com Mazzo: mazjim@me.com Nankani: drnankani@gmail.com Roop: prakhyatfamous@gmail.com Shah: sunilshah@nhs.net Tammenoms Bakker: jbakker@longitudecapital.com Thompson: vance.thompson@ vancethompsonvision.com Elimination of the steep inner facet in the diffractive profile reduces scatter of light caused by the steps in a traditional diffractive IOL, Dr. Roop said. The lens, he continued, has no ring shadow, no scatter, reduced halo, better contrast sensitivity, and wastes less light. Dr. Roop said he compared data from Pan- Optix (Alcon) studies to that of the EDGE-less Diffractive Lens and said the latter "outper- forms on all three foci by an unprecedented margin." A clinical trial for the lens has started in India, and Dr. Roop expects sales to start in the Indian market by January 2021 with a plan to enter the contact lens market with a similar diffractive design at some point as well. Ms. Tammenoms Bakker said she was impressed by Dr. Roop's presentation hitting on all elements of the judge's criteria and said it was helpful to hear the comparison with this lens technology to other trifocal technology on the market. Mr. Mazzo said for the amount of mon- ey the company is seeking, he would suggest focusing on the IOL market and not adding the contact lens. "When you add this contact lens, the concern is that you take away from your IOL," Mr. Mazzo said. Sunil Shah, FRCS(Ed), FRCOphth Company/concept: Photon Therapeutics Ltd. Mentor: John Berdahl, MD Corneal infections cause a multitude of prob- lems that have significant visual implications, Prof. Shah said in his pitch. "As a cornea specialist, I see corneal infec- tions all the time. They can cause a multitude of problems … all leading to visual problems," Prof. Shah said Use of ultraviolet light is a well-known sterilization technique. Prof. Shah described how his concept—a handheld UV-C light delivery device—treats corneal infections in 15 seconds. It is repeatable and can be used alone or in conjunction with conventional treatments. Prof. Shah said UV-C light is very effective, kills all known germs (a 100% kill rate in studies) He described Bynocs as a cloud-based software program that follows the dichoptic principle in the form of games. The dominant eye gets the stimuli with reduced contrast, pro- moting development of binocular vision, Dr. Nankani said. So far, he said research with the product has included 150 patients (median age of 7 years) and has shown an improvement of 4 log- MAR lines in 30 sessions with 90% of patients developing/gaining stereopsis. He also said the company has a presence in 300 eyecare centers in India with more than 4,000 patients enrolled. Bynocs plans to enter the U.S. market this year and will conduct clinical trials. Within 1–2 years, it hopes to launch commercially in the U.S. Dr. Nankani explained that the system would be based on a subscription, pay-per-use model with licenses sold in bundles. About 30 licenses are needed per patient with an approx- imate cost of $1,500, which could be partially covered by insurance, he said. In discussion with the judges, Dr. Nankani further explained how this technology pro- vides a permanent treatment by addressing the binocular problem with amblyopia vs. patching. Dr. Lindstrom mentioned a company several years ago that was trying to produce a similar product but also used to improve visual quality for patients who were dissatisfied with premi- um IOLs. Dr. Nankani said he thinks this is an interesting additional application that they're already working on with good results, though there's not yet enough data to publish. Prakhyat Roop, MD Company/concept: EDGE-less Diffractive Lens Mentor: Jeff Weinhuff Diffractive technology has emerged as the fa- vored technology for presbyopia correction, Dr. Roop said, but current diffractive IOLs have a high percentage of negative visual outcomes, such as loss of contrast, glare, and halos, which is keeping this premium IOL segment from dominating the global market. Dr. Roop set out to create a diffractive lens with significantly fewer of these negative side effects, introducing what he called "the quan- tum leap in multifocal IOL technology—the edge-less diffractive." continued from page 16 Winning Pitch Challenge honorable mentions •Ahmed Al-Ghou, MD, CSI Dry Eye •Sean McCafferty, MD, Conexus Lens •Brian Shafer, magnetic tarsorrhaphy continued on page 21

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