Eyeworld Daily News

38 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | MAY 5, 2023 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING DAILY NEWS reenergize the market. Mr. Curtis thinks one reason the technology has lost interest is there haven't been many upgrades. When designing the ALLY, he said the company looked at drivers as to why people abandoned the femtosecond technology or why they don't do it in the first place. Mr. Connaughton added that what differentiates this ALLY device from other devices is its speed, the fact that it can bring the patient in at any angle around the system, and there are many preop devices that can interface with the system. Glaukos, discussing the iDose sustained glaucoma drug delivery, with Tomas Navratil, PhD, David Haffner, and Cody McKenzie: Dr. Navratil mentioned that the iDose is in the NDA stage and is targeting FDA approval by the end of the year. He added that it is primarily a phar- maceutical. The implant is localized in the corneal angle and is designed to elute over multiple years. Mr. McKenzie indicated that ex- perienced angle-based surgeons are the clear and immediate opportunity, but he thinks iDose will help expand the market. Dr. Fram asked for explanation on how this product has no effect on the endothelium. Mr. Haffner explained that this is due to the implantation and the nature of how it sits in the corneal angle. It is implanted through a clear corneal incision temporal at nasal side, and two-thirds of the device is in the anterior chamber. When implanted, it naturally sits away from cornea and parallel to iris plane, he said, so there's a low chance that it's in contact with the cornea. Editors' note: The speakers have financial interests with the companies they represent. A new Eyecelerator session featured commercializa- tion teams from companies ramping up U.S. revenues in 2023. Moderators were Nicole Fram, MD, and Leon Herndon Jr., MD. Four companies were featured. STAAR Surgical, discussing the EVO ICL, with Warren Foust, Jim Francese, and David Choromanski: Mr. Foust kicked off the discussion, saying that it has been 6 months since the EVO ICL was launched. The most exciting thing is 99.4% satis- faction from patients, and surgeons are satisfied as well, he said. "It's an adjunct to laser refractive surgery," Mr. Foust said. Dr. Herndon asked how this implant is different, noting that ICL had a bit of a "bad name" before. Mr. Foust said the company has heard from customers about con- cerns around sizing and focused on addressing the sizing component and also training for surgeons. With a new device in the U.S., there are different preop steps needed, Mr. Francese said, adding that STAAR has seen an expansion of its field team and clinical applica- tions and practice development and training teams. "We're working on educating on sizing and inventory management," he said. Mr. Francese said the company sees EVO as an additive procedure. We think EVO can be an important way to make patients happy, grow refractive practices, and we think we can add patients to the refractive pool that aren't there today. Bausch + Lomb, discussing the IC-8 IOL, with Anthony Wallace, and Chuck Hess: Mr. Wallace kicked off the discussion on the IC-8 Apthera IOL. One of the challenges we had when acquiring AcuFocus was resources, he said. The Phase 1 launch in the first quarter of the year was a small subset of surgeons who had patients needing this technology. The goal has been to acquire data and experience, he said, adding that additional sales reps and educators have been trained, and the goal is to implant 1,500 lenses in sec- ond quarter and try to reach 5,000 patients by end of year. Mr. Hess said that, when acquir- ing the technology, Bausch + Lomb saw an opportunity. AcuFocus did an amazing job bringing this technology to the market, he said. We saw it as a great opportunity because of reach in over 100 markets globally to take this on and introduce it. "The oppor- tunity we saw with this platform was the great regulatory work that had been done to have this technology positioned in EDOF space," he said. LENSAR, discussing the ALLY femtosecond laser, with Nick Curtis Alan Connaughton, and Lauren Gyoerkoe: Mr. Curtis noted that the ALLY product is a standalone femtosecond laser that can be put in the OR and is a fraction of the size of current units and can be easily moved. The features of the laser can be utilized no matter what phaco machine surgeons are using, he said. Ms. Gyoerkoe said that the ability to launch this laser without a phaco machine has allowed surgeons to just replace that laser with this new laser. She added that the ALLY is only 22 inches wide. Dr. Herndon asked about ap- plications for in-office use, with Mr. Curtis noting that the ALLY would fit well in an in-office surgery environ- ment. It can be moved within 250 degrees of the patient. Dr. Fram wondered about ophthalmologists losing interest in the femtosecond laser as a category and if this new product will help Wheels Up: New devices attempting 2023 takeoff

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