Carsten Laue PhD
From an idea that first saw the light of day back in the 1990s,
Infinite Vision Optics (IVO), a privately-held company headquartered in Strasbourg, France, believes the time is now right for cataract patients to benefit from its adjustable intraocular lens technology.
“It has been a long time coming from the initial concept, but sometimes the best ideas take time in terms of clinical and manufacturing development. We are at an exciting phase of our development and I am confident that the process will further accelerate from this point forward,” said Carsten Laue PhD, Chief Executive Officer and the main driving force behind IVO.
Incorporated in 2010, IVO has built its company around the concept of an adjustable IOL developed by Theodore P. Werblin MD, PhD, a practising ophthalmic surgeon and associate clinical professor of ophthalmology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA. Dr Werblin is still actively advising the company.
Unlike currently available intraocular lenses, IVO’s lens system, dubbed PreciSight, offers a life-long solution to vision correction made possible by proprietary technology.
The IVO lens system comprises two components – a base lens that serves as a docking station, and an easily accessible front lens that can be exchanged. This system allows the front lens to be adjusted throughout the patient’s lifetime.
FLEXIBLE APPROACH
Dr Laue is convinced that the technology offers many advantages to surgeons and their patients.
“Our system allows the surgeon to implant a precise, individualised, vision-correcting lens without changing the workflow in the operating room. The system can address all degrees of near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia. The docking system also means that there is no need for a full lens explantation in the event of postoperative refractive surprises or other issues with quality of vision. We only need to replace the front lens with a significantly reduced risk of capsular bag damage and additional costs that that entails,” he said.
Although other strategies may be employed to avoid full lens explantation, such as postoperative adjustment by UV light on special silicone lenses or the use of two independent lenses, none of the current systems combines small incisions, the perfect optical alignment and reversibility associated with IVO’s docking lens system, adds Dr Laue.
“Our approach is minimally invasive, and only applied to those patients who really need it. The front lens is made of hydrophilic material, which is flexible and small enough to be removed through the original incision. Furthermore, the ease of exchange of the front lens does not seem to change with the time in the eye, and we are about to generate long-term data to confirm this,” he said.
From the development of a prototype lens in 2008 and 2009, the company’s development has accelerated rapidly since 2015, explains Dr Laue.
“In the last three years we have developed the manufacturing process and have got clinical studies with key clinical reference centres up and running to prove that the concept works. The initial results have been very promising, as reported at the ESCRS meeting in Lisbon in 2017, with an update at ASCRS in Washington DC in 2018. The lens has now been implanted in over 100 eyes and studies are ongoing. We also recently received the European CE-mark approval for PreciSight, which is a key milestone in getting the system into the market and making it available for European patients,” he said.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK
With patient recruitment for clinical studies of the lens still ongoing, Dr Laue said that the initial feedback from surgeons has been largely positive.
“We are lining up requests from surgeons in Europe to implant the lens now that we have received the CE mark. We have also had many requests for us to supply a multifocal optic for the system. This is our next priority and the development of the multifocal version is now well advanced,” he said.
In terms of marketing, Dr Laue believes that it would be a mistake for the company to focus only on the functional aspect of the PreciSight technology.
“I prefer to talk in terms of patient groups rather than function and technology, because at the end of the day if there is no perceived benefit for the patient then the lens will not make it. It needs to demonstrate real advantage to the patient beyond the fact that it is ‘exchangeable’.
“The patient that will benefit most from our lens is one that has a high likelihood of vision problems after cataract surgery – i.e. patients with irregular corneas, keratoconus, or post-LASIK patients. That’s already a huge market and that’s where I think we can make a real difference,” he concluded.
