SYLMAR, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (EYES) (“Second Sight” or “the Company”), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics to provide functional vision to blind patients, today announced that all three of the centers approved to implant the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System (“Argus II”) under the French Government national healthcare reimbursement program entitled ‘Forfait Innovation’ have successfully completed their first implants in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Current French implant centers are located in Paris, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.
In 2014, the Argus II became the first-ever medical device to be named as the recipient of Forfait Innovation, allowing select hospitals in France to offer this “early access” and innovative treatment to patients with advanced RP. Forfait Innovation provides dedicated support to patients implanted with Argus II, funding the costs of implantation and patients’ hospital fees. 36 RP patients in France now stand to benefit from this life-changing technology with this first step in national reimbursement.
“We are pleased to see RP patients, who previously had no treatment option, gain access to this revolutionary device through Forfait Innovation,” stated Dr. Robert Greenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Second Sight. “There is great potential for patients in France, as the French government has taken a progressive step in supporting a sometimes overlooked patient population.”
RP, an inherited disease that often results in nearly complete blindness, affects roughly 24,000 French persons and 167,000 persons across Europe in total.
To date, the Argus II has been implanted in more than 100 individuals worldwide, and is the first approved retinal prosthesis in the world. Currently, the treatment is offered at approved centers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. The system induces visual perception in blind individuals by providing electrical pulses to stimulate the retina’s remaining cells, resulting in a perception of light patterns in the brain. The Argus II has the potential to offer life changing visual capabilities to those with little or no remaining functional vision. The Argus II implant can positively impact a blind person’s ability to conduct routine daily activities, such as recognizing shapes or large objects, locating people, identifying the location of doorways, and following lines or edges. Ultimately, this is meant to allow Argus II users to live their daily lives with more confidence. |
发表于 2015-2-27 11:30
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