With the rollout of its Avagen test, Avellino Lab USA Inc. hopes to see a significant change in the diagnosis and management of keratoconus, a common cause of blindness. The test quantifies the risk of keratoconus and definitively diagnoses other corneal dystrophies, which are frequently misdiagnosed or undiagnosed until late in their development, when treatment is less effective and vision already impaired.

Heru Inc. has raised $30 million in a series A financing to support the further development of its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, wearable eye diagnostic and vision correction platform. D1 Capital Partners led the round, with participation from Softbank Ventures Opportunity Fund, Maurice Ferre, Frederic Moll, Krillion Ventures and a consortium of investors with expertise in developing, launching and scaling medical technologies.

Tesseract Health Inc. has closed an oversubscribed series B financing, reeling in $80 million with support from Foresite Capital, Glenview Capital and Opaleye. The proceeds will be used to advance the company’s Tesseract Ic eye-imaging diagnostic technology platform, including U.S. and overseas regulatory clearances. This is the first independent financing round for the Guilford, Conn.-based startup, which is developing a platform capable of diagnosing a range of diseases without a single blood draw. The company received prior seed funding as part of the 4Catalyzer med-tech incubator.

Pixium Vision SA reported that its merger with Second Sight Medical Products Inc. has foundered. The combination would have eased Paris-based Pixium’s entry into the U.S. market and Sylmar, Calif.-based Second Sight’s access to the European market, which Pixium has previously opposed, and enabled them to jointly develop and market neuromodulation devices that restore some degree of vision to the blind. The deal had been expected to close early in the second quarter of 2021.

The FDA has accepted Eyenovia Inc.’s new drug application (NDA) for Mydcombi, a fixed combination pupil dilation agent, with a PDUFA date of Oct. 28, 2021.

HONG KONG – Johnson & Johnson Vision (J&J Vision) has received its first global approval from Japan for its Acuvue Theravision with Ketotifen contact lenses. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s green light will help with patients with vision correction, while simultaneously alleviating ocular allergic symptoms for allergic conjunctivitis, while they wear the lenses.

Israeli med-tech startup Forsight Robotics Ltd. has closed a $10 million seed funding round led by Eclipse Ventures and joined by Mithril Capital. The funding will help advance the company’s work on a surgical robotic platform that employs microsurgical robotics, computer visualization and machine learning to automate many of the complex elements of ophthalmic surgery.

PARIS – Less than a year after its formation, Acusurgical SAS, has secured a $7 million series A round to develop its robotic platform for assisting surgeons performing microsurgery procedures in retinal surgery. “Our goal isn’t to replace the surgeon but to increase his surgical capacities. Our mission is to create an augmented surgeon,” Christoph Spuhler, CEO and co-founder of Montpellier, France-based Acusurgical, told BioWorld.

Glaukos Corp. reported 12-month results from the pivotal IDE trial of its Istent Infinite trabecular micro-bypass system, showing substantial reduction in mean diurnal intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma uncontrolled by prior surgery or medication. The company is targeting U.S. FDA approval of the device for standalone moderate-to-severe glaucoma in late 2021.

Pixium Vision SA and Second Sight Medical Products Inc. have inked a definitive agreement through which the former will become the controlling shareholder of the newly combined company. The transaction also will result in the creation of a new entity that will focus on cortical stimulation through Orion. Second Sight is developing that product, which bypasses the diseased eye and could provide a new form of vision.