People might soon have a lot more to see. A retinal implant that can restore vision degraded by age has been approved for use in Europe and could soon be available in the U.S. Researchers are also evaluating the applicability of the implant for other eye conditions.
So much to see
The PRIMA retinal implant, created by the Science Corporation, can “restore functional central vision” in those with geographic atrophy (an advanced form of macular degeneration), said Stanford Medicine. The implant has shown measurable vision improvement, allowing “those who were considered legally blind to read letters and words.”
“Normal vision in the U.S. is 20/20, and blindness is 20/200,” Frank Brodie, the medical director for vision and the PRIMA implant at the Science Corporation, said to New Scientist. “Patients using PRIMA reached about 20/160, so they went from blind to not blind.”
The implant is “about the size of a pinhead and is inserted beneath the retina” and “used alongside glasses with a frame-mounted camera,” said New Scientist. It operates with a brain-computer interface (BCI), in which the camera “captures and processes images, then projects the result onto the implant’s chips using near-infrared light.” The method “offers users black-and-white vision and the ability to zoom in on objects” without interfering with any existing vision, said Stat News. “We have a cochlear implant for vision now,” Max Hodak, the founder and CEO of Science Corporation, said to Stat News.
Geographic atrophy affects eight million people globally and over one million in the U.S. Currently available treatments for geographic atrophy are “extremely limited.” We “have two [U.S. Food and Drug Administration]-approved medications for the treatment of geographic atrophy that slow down the progressive disease but, unfortunately, cannot bring back lost vision,” Sunir Garg, a doctor at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, said to New Scientist.
New field of vision
PRIMA has been approved for use and sale in Europe and is set to launch in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The implant also “received a Humanitarian Use Device designation from the FDA in March,” said Stat News. The designation “puts the device on track to debut in the United States early next year if it receives agency approval.” If PRIMA received FDA approval, it would be only the “second brain-computer interface (BCI) to enter the U.S. market.”
Cost could be a barrier. “Each PRIMA device is expected to cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said TechCrunch. Science Corporation and “its medical partners in Europe are currently in discussion with healthcare providers over reimbursement.” In the U.S., “most of the patient population for the device is over 65, so they expect the device to be covered by Medicare, though those details are yet to be finalized,” said Stat News. Researchers are also evaluating PRIMA for other retinal conditions like Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa.