Science Corporation implants PRIMA in first Stargardt disease patient

Science Corporation says it has implanted its PRIMA vision-restoring device in its first patient with Stargardt disease, an inherited condition that gradually damages central vision. The company said the implant was placed in May during an ongoing trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia.

CEO Max Hodak described the treatment at TechCrunch Disrupt. The patient saw a letter during the first rehabilitation session and read a word during the second, according to the company.

PRIMA is a 2-millimeter-by-2-millimeter chip placed at the back of the eye, where light-sensing cells have degenerated. Patients wear camera-equipped glasses that send images to the implant, which acts like artificial photoreceptors. Hodak said it provides a sharp, high-contrast black-and-white patch of central vision, rather than a wide field of color vision. He said the current view is like looking through a straw.

Hodak said the next step is to expand the field of view, which would require a larger implant and smaller electrodes. He said a next-generation device is being developed for human testing within the next year, and that the company hopes to approach natural visual acuity over the next five years.

PRIMA is commercially available in Europe for people with vision loss from geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. Science Corporation says it is exploring the approach for Stargardt disease, which is considered incurable. About 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision because of the disease, according to the source.