Researchers Present Latest Positive Results of Second Sight’s Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis Feasibility Study

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYES) (“Second Sight” or the “Company”), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics intended to create an artificial form of useful vision for blind individuals, announced that 12-month results from the Company’s Early Feasibility Study of the Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System (“Orion”) will be presented today at the World Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Annual Meeting in New York City. On both the primary and secondary outcome measures, latest results at 12 months have been positive.

The study’s principal investigators, Nader Pouratian, MD, Ph.D. of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (“UCLA”), and Daniel Yoshor, MD of Baylor College of Medicine (“Baylor”), are presenting the topline data. Orion is a breakthrough technology intended to provide useful artificial vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injury or disease, and eye injury. Orion converts images captured by a miniature video camera mounted on glasses into a series of small electrical pulses transmitted wirelessly to electrodes implanted directly on the visual cortex of the individual subject’s brain.

The first human subject was implanted with Orion in January 2018. A total of six subjects have been implanted in the Orion Early Feasibility Study, including four subjects at the UCLA site in Los Angeles and two subjects at the Baylor site in Houston. There are five male subjects and one female subject, with a median age of 48 and an average of 13 months since implant. Study subjects are completely bilaterally blind. Causes of vision loss among participants include congenital glaucoma, head trauma, endophthalmitis and optic neuropathy.

The primary outcome measure of the Orion Early Feasibility Study is safety. Secondary outcome measures include the ability to produce phosphenes, assess the long-term functionality of the device and evaluate the benefit to patients in terms of visual function, functional vision and quality of life.

“We are pleased with the continued favorable progress being made in the Orion Early Feasibility Study among the six study participants. The first four subjects have now reached 12 months post-implant, and participants appear to be making steady improvements in their ability to perform everyday tasks and successfully meet the study’s functional vision endpoint goals. It is also encouraging to see that when compared with similar Argus II feasibility study results at the 12-month mark, the Orion study participants are doing as well as or better than Argus II participants in most measurements, such as the Functional Low-Vision Observer Rated Assessment (FLORA). We look forward to continued collaboration with our study investigators and to advancing our Orion technology platform,” said Will McGuire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Second Sight.