Eyeworld Daily News

EW SHOW DAILY 16 ASCRS News Today Saturday, May 6, 2017 of treatment that are changing the standard of care, and there are also unprecedented opportunities for future entrepreneurs, he said. Following Dr. Kliman's open- ing remarks, two ophthalmology innovation showcases featured presentations from 21 companies, including Aerie Pharmaceuticals (Irvine, California), Ocular Ther- apeutix (Bedford, Massachusetts), Mati Therapeutics (Austin, Texas), InnFocus (Miami), Ivantis (Ir- vine, California), EyeGate Pharma (Waltham, Massachusetts), Cassini (The Hague, The Netherlands), Lac- riScience (Washington, D.C.), Kala Pharmaceuticals (Waltham, Massa- chusetts), SightGlass Vision (Palo Alto, California), Avedro (Waltham, Massachusetts), ClarVista Medical (Aliso Viejo, California), Omega Ophthalmics (Lexington, Kentucky), Mynosys Cellular Devices (Fremont, California), PowerVision (Belmont, California), Refocus Group (Dallas), AcuFocus (Irvine, California), ReVi- sion Optics (Lake Forest, California), Presbia (Dublin, Ireland), Presbyopia Therapies (Coronado, California), and SightLife Surgical (Seattle). The OIS Innovator Award was presented during the meeting's net- working lunch to Oculeve (now part of Allergan, Dublin, Ireland), with Michael Ackermann, PhD, San Francisco, accepting the award. By teaming up with Allergan, Oculeve delivered the breakthrough TrueTear, said William Link, PhD, San Francisco, one of the meeting's chairmen, while introducing Dr. Ackermann. This intranasal neu- rostimulating device increases the production of natural tears and was FDA approved last week. Other in- dustry leaders and physicians spoke in a video tribute about the value of TrueTear as a tool to produce tears on demand, which can be particu- larly helpful for those patients with dry eye. Dr. Ackermann thanked the many people over the years who have worked on the device with him when he accepted the award. EW Editors' note: The speakers at OIS have financial interests with the companies they represent. by Ellen Stodola EyeWorld Senior Staff Writer cluding IOLs and the excimer laser. More recently, in the first 17 years of the millennium (2000–17), there have been a number of important innovations, including the femtosec- ond laser, corneal inlays, and MIGS. "These are first-of-a-kind innova- tions," he said, and they are created to be used specifically in the eye. There are a number of factors in the current innovation process that are helping to speed it up, including the FDA, commercialization, and strategics. However, he also noted that current challenges in ophthal- mic innovation include constrained early stage funding, regulatory and reimbursement uncertainty, and a small ecosystem of strategics. Dr. Kliman recognized sever- al areas that he thinks are future opportunities, including presbyopia, less invasive refractive surgery, and myopia stabilization/prevention. "Ophthalmology is enjoying an acceleration of elegant innovations," he said. There are new categories nology categories, including MIGS, femtosecond lasers, IOLs, corneal inlays, corneal crosslinking, and dry eye inventions. Dr. Kliman discussed the inno- vation cycle to show how things move from the beginning of the in- vention all the way to commercial- ization. "This process is not easy and often feels like a lottery," he said. Dr. Kliman highlighted a number of companies presenting at this year's OIS meeting who started at an early stage in the cycle and have emerged. "We are in an amazing era of in- novation," Dr. Kliman said. It hasn't always been that way. However, he said that now it seems that innova- tion has changed and gotten faster and more elegant. The first inno- vation in ophthalmology was the invention of spectacles in the 13th century. It took 600 years to move from that to a lens that could be put on the eye in the late 19th century, Dr. Kliman said. In the 20th century, there were more innovations, in- T he Ophthalmology Innova- tion Summit (OIS@ASCRS) took place on Thursday in Los Angeles. The meeting kicked off with an anterior segment update from Gilbert Kli- man, MD, Menlo Park, California, one of the chairmen of the meeting. At this year's OIS@ASCRS, 21 com- panies were scheduled to present, he said, with additional interactive panels and other programming. "A key thing about this meet- ing is that we want to make it more interactive," he said. This includes giving attendees the ability to participate and vote on audience questions as well as rate company presentations by using the OIS app. "I've never been more excited than right now for major inno- vations happening throughout ophthalmology, particularly in the anterior segment," Dr. Kliman said, adding that there is a changing stan- dard of care around the world. He highlighted a number of new tech- OIS@ASCRS highlights innovations and companies in anterior segment Dr. Ackermann (right) receives the OIS Innovator Award from Dr. Link.

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