May 13, 2022

Enhanced Implantable Miniature Telescope Moving into Clinical Trial for AMD Patients

Eye On the Cure Research News

The device is designed for people with late-stage AMD who have no treatment options

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Samsara Vision Inc., previously known as VisionCare, Inc., has received authorization from the US Food & Drug Administration to launch a clinical trial for its SING implantable miniature telescope (IMT), a device to improve visual acuity for people 55 and older with late-stage dry or wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The IMT is implanted in one eye during cataract surgery. Known as CONCERTO, the clinical trial will enroll up to 100 participants in the US.

SING stands for “smaller-incision new-generation implantable miniature telescope.” The SING IMT is an updated version of the original IMT, which was FDA approved in 2010 and implanted in 600 people. The SING IMT provides 2.7x magnification and focuses images onto the recipient’s remaining healthy retinal tissue surrounding the macula.

A potential advantage of the SING IMT is that implantation is expected to cause less corneal cell loss than the surgical procedure for the original device.

The SING IMT is currently approved for late-stage AMD patients who are 55 years of age or older in many European countries, but it is not currently FDA approved in the US.

Samsara Vision says that the IMT “is not a cure for late-stage AMD. It will not return vision to the level a patient had before AMD, nor will it completely make up for vision loss.”