Science Corporation Submits IPO Prospectus Following Breakthrough with PRIMA Retinal Implant Restoring Reading Ability in AMD Patients

Scientists have improved the vision of dozens of people who were functionally blind due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using an eye implant. The implant, measuring 2mm x 2mm and only 30 micrometers thick, is surgically placed under the retina to replace photoreceptor cells lost to the disease.

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This clinical trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine on October 20, involved 38 patients with advanced AMD and severe retinal degeneration. One year after device implantation, 80% of the participants experienced clinically significant improvements in vision.

"In the area of the retina that was originally a blind spot due to necrosis, vision has been restored." Frank Holz, an ophthalmologist at the University of Bonn in Germany and the trial leader, stated, "Patients are able to recognize letters, read words, and function in daily life."

Despite some minor incidents related to the implant surgery, the trial's safety monitoring committee concluded that the benefits of the device outweigh the risks. In June this year, the device's owner, U.S.-based neurotechnology company Science Corporation, applied for certification to allow the device to be sold in the European market.

"I think this is an exciting and significant study, which has been carefully designed and analyzed, bringing hope of restoring vision to patients who once thought it was more like 'science fiction' than reality," said Francesca Cordeiro, an ophthalmologist at Imperial College London.

AMD is the most common cause of incurable blindness in the elderly, mainly divided into two types: wet AMD and dry AMD. The current research focuses on patients with dry AMD, of which about 5 million people worldwide are in the advanced stage. In patients with dry AMD, photoreceptor cells in the central retina gradually die over several years, leaving only intact peripheral vision but losing high-acuity central vision. "They cannot recognize faces, read, drive, or watch TV," said Holz.

Dead photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) convert light into electrochemical signals, which are then transmitted to other types of retinal neurons. These neurons send the information to the brain's visual processing areas. Since retinal neurons remain alive after AMD, scientists have reasoned that a photosensitive implant could restore vision by electrically stimulating the retina based on the pattern of photons striking it.

The implant, named PRIMA (Photovoltaic Retinal Implant Microarray), was initially developed by the French company Pixium Vision and acquired by Science Corporation last year.

PRIMA is wireless and needs to be used in conjunction with glasses containing a camera. The camera captures images and converts them into infrared light patterns, which are then transmitted to the retinal implant. Holz says that the system allows users to zoom in and out on target objects and adjust contrast and brightness, but it requires months of intensive training to achieve optimal results.

In the current study, 38 subjects were treated at 17 clinical centers across five European countries, with 32 participants being tested one year after implantation. Of these, 26 showed clinically meaningful improvements in vision—equivalent to being able to read two additional lines on a standard vision chart. Overall, the solution achieved with PRIMA is close to the vision goals of the majority of participants.

At the end of the study, most recipients were already using PRIMA at home to read letters, words, and numbers. Among these 32 individuals, 22 reported medium to high user satisfaction.

However, the PRIMA system has only 381 pixels, with each pixel measuring 100 micrometers square. Holz admitted that users' reading is "not fast or smooth." The vision provided by the system is also black and white, rather than color.

Holz said that the original designer of the device, physicist Daniel Palinker from Stanford University in the United States, already has some ideas on how to achieve color vision in the future. A next-generation device larger than PRIMA and filled with smaller pixels should be able to achieve better visual acuity.

Although the device has been tested on patients with AMD, it also holds promise for helping individuals who have lost their sight due to other conditions regain partial vision. These conditions are characterized by the death of photoreceptor cells but with other retinal neurons remaining functional, such as in retinitis pigmentosa.

Retinal implants are not the only solution to this problem. Other researchers are exploring the use of stem cell therapy to regenerate photoreceptors, or optogenetic therapy, which introduces light-sensitive proteins into remaining retinal cells, and even implants in the brain's visual cortex.

Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2501396