OCTOBER NEWS ROUND UP

🔥 Here's our picks for some of the biggest eyecare news stories in October 👀

👓 Essilor Stellest lenses slow down myopia progression by 67%
EssilorLuxottica says the lenses slow down myopia progression by 67% on average, compared to single vision lenses, when worn 12 hours a day. They have been designed with two complementary features, which when combined offer the best solution to slow down myopia progression in children, while providing correction. By 2050, half the population of the world, five billion people, will be myopic and nearly a billion people will be highly myopic.
 
👁️ World’s first Calibreye system implanted in a human patient for glaucoma.
Dr. Rohit Varma, the Founding director of cutting-edge Southern California Eye Institute, has successfully implanted the world’s first Calibreye System, a next-generation glaucoma drainage device, into a human patient. It is strategically designed to effectively reduce intraocular pressure (IOP), and to empower specialists with manual control over the regulation of titratable outflow in #glaucoma patients, aligning with their individualized treatment plans.

🤑XPANCEO Raises $40M to launch world’s first smart contact lenses with AR vision.
XPANCEO, a deep tech startup, has secured $40 million in seed funding to introduce groundbreaking contact lenses with augmented reality (AR) vision features. Within this collaboration, 40 experts from esteemed universities and research institutions have joined forces to engineer ultra-thin, smart contact lenses. These revolutionary lenses are set to revolutionize the field by replacing bulky AR glasses, offering users night vision, zooming capabilities, health monitoring, and immersive content consumption.

🥳 Orasis Pharmaceuticals announced the FDA has approved pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution.
Orasis Pharmaceuticals have announced that they expect to have pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution commercially available in the U.S in the first half of 2024 for the treatment of presbyopia. Presbyopia affects more than 120 million people in the United States, usually after the age of 40.
Elad Kedar, CEO of Orasis: “I am grateful to the Orasis team, our strategic partners, clinical investigators, and patients who participated in our clinical trials, all of whom made this achievement possible”.