Primary open-angle glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness globally. Individuals of African ancestry have a disproportionately high risk of developing glaucoma, but genetic risk factors have been studied mainly in populations of European ancestry.

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG recently received U.S. FDA clearance for the latest generation of its femtosecond laser, the Visumax 800, with its Smile pro software, for surgically treating nearsightedness, with or without astigmatism.

Ophthalmology company Polyactiva Pty Ltd.’s biodegradable ocular implant provides six months of sustained drug delivery for patients with glaucoma and is the first biodegradable ocular implant that has the potential to be used safely for repeat dosing, Polyactiva CEO Vanessa Waddell told BioWorld.

Ophthalmology company Polyactiva Pty Ltd.’s biodegradable ocular implant provides six months of sustained drug delivery for patients with glaucoma and is the first biodegradable ocular implant that has the potential to be used safely for repeat dosing, Polyactiva CEO Vanessa Waddell told BioWorld.

Ilasis Laser SAS said it raised $4.8 million to finance commercial development in Europe of its femtolaser surgical instrument, Rx. A group made up of French business angels, Irdi Capital investment SAS, and Nouvelle Aquitaine Coinvestiment SAS (NACO) were involved in this funding round.

Luminopia Inc. reeled in $16 million in an oversubscribed series A financing led by U.S. Venture Partners. The funds will support full commercial launch of the company’s U.S. FDA-cleared digital therapeutic for the treatment of children ages 4-7 with amblyopia. “We are thrilled to announce the successful close of our oversubscribed series A round, which will allow us to advance our mission of pioneering a new class of treatments for the 15 million Americans who suffer from neuro-visual disorders,” said Scott Xiao, Luminopia’s co-founder and CEO.

Manufacturers of contact lenses may or may not want prescribers to be agnostic as to brand, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) contact lens rule requires that prescribers give the prescription to the customer when the eye exam is complete.

Eyenuk Inc. is significantly extending the scope of its artificial intelligence system for the automatic analysis of retinal images, adding the diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and glaucoma to the EU approved uses of Eyeart AI.

Thirona BV spun out its retina division into a stand-alone business, Thirona Retina BV, focused exclusively on the eye disease market, effective Jan. 1, 2023. The development comes after the recent expansion of Retcad, Thirona’s flagship solution for eye disease screening. Thirona BV will continue to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-driven systems for precision medicine in lung disease.

Earlysight SA is developing a novel ophthalmology device that can be used to diagnose certain degenerative eye disorders long before onset of first symptoms. Earlysight and researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have reported positive results for their first clinical trial of Cellularis in the journal Ophthalmology Science.