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18 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | APRIL 5, 2024 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING DAILY NEWS T he Eyecelerator program on Thursday kicked off with introductions from Steve Speares, ASCRS Executive Di- rector, Gil Kliman, MD, Eyecelerator Program Director, and John Berdahl, MD, and Julie Schallhorn, MD, Eyecelerator Program Co-Chairs. Mr. Speares expressed his excite- ment about the program and for the ASCRS Annual Meeting as a whole. ASCRS is celebrating 50 years of existence, he said. "We have a host of things planned to give you a sense of where we were in 1974," he said, adding that everyone should be sure to attend the opening session today in Hall C. "Imagine a world where you were not allowed, as a practicing clinical ophthalmologist, to present a paper on intraocular lenses," he said. "These were foreign bodies. You were either someone who put a foreign body in the eye, or you were a reputable surgeon who took them out." ASCRS was founded by a bunch of mavericks, he said, surgeons who were dissatisfied with the pace of innovation. Dr. Kliman said that Eyecelerator is the biggest innovation meeting in the world, held twice a year. This year's meeting had around 600 people in attendance. "What we love about this meeting is it's a business meeting, not a clinical meeting," he said. It's primarily a business audi- ence, and we want to bring together small and large companies and speed innovation going forward, he said. Dr. Kliman noted that there are many companies presenting for the first time. One of our goals is to get new companies to the podium and help them move forward, he said. The goal of Eyecelerator is to increase the standard of care to get innovations to patients faster. Market update The program also featured a market update. Kristen Harmon Ingenito, with Market Scope, highlighted some of the trends. IOLs are gaining some momentum, she said, and that's reas- suring to see steady growth in a large market like that. She added that there is also a lot of optimism for the glaucoma surgical market, despite reimbursement issues. One trend that she mentioned was U.S. refractive procedures stag- nating and even declining slightly in the past year. There's a lot that's happened, she said, and refractive patients are more heavily impacted by challenging economic conditions. Dry eye is another area that has seen a lot of activity. In addition to recalls for a number of OTC drops, there were also several new drug releases last year, which are showing good adoption rates. How do investors think about ophthalmology? Neha Begwani, with Morgan Stanley, discussed this in her presentation highlighting the state of ophthalmology. Attractive characteristics include: • Attractive demographic trends with growing patient populations globally • Staffing shortages vs. patient population driving need for better technology • Limited universe of public invest- ible opportunities • Expanding universe of acquirers Areas of potential consideration include: • Delivers benefits beyond patient outcomes • One-hit wonder vs. technology platforms • Reimbursement • Ability to compete against large, established players During an Ophthalmic MedTech Investing panel, Ryan Zimmerman, with BTIG, who moderated the pan- el, asked if panelists think that the ophthalmic sector is easy for inves- tors to understand. Frank Coughlin, with Columbia Threadneedle Invest- ments, said he doesn't find it too challenging relative to other markets but said that he thinks it should be more widely accessible. One challenge that comes to mind is reim- bursement. "Maybe we need to be better about getting this space into the more generalist view because it's quite accessible," he said. Ms. Begwani said it's accessible, but people might think more on a global scale. When you talk about investments, you think about it in Asia and Europe as well, she said, and thinking about how to penetrate across many regions creates more complexity on the work that needs to be done. Editors' note: The speakers have fi- nancial interests with their associated company. Eyecelerator program showcases ophthalmic innovation Dr. Kliman introduces the Eyecelerator program, which focused on ophthalmic innovation. Source: ASCRS

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