Article preview from Medtech Insight -October 01, 2010
Despite decades of effort, the treatment of glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in the world, has the hallmark of a clinical field that's still somewhat early in its development. There is as yet no clinical consensus regarding preferred therapies and potential treatments are few and very different from one another. Current glaucoma therapies range from drugs offering maximum safety and minimal efficacy to surgical procedures offering greater efficacy but also greater risks.
Article preview from Medtech Insight -October 01, 2010
Despite decades of effort, the treatment of glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in the world, has the hallmark of a clinical field that's still somewhat early in its development. There is as yet no clinical consensus regarding preferred therapies and potential treatments are few and very different from one another. Current glaucoma therapies range from drugs offering maximum safety and minimal efficacy to surgical procedures offering greater efficacy but also greater risks.
About a decade ago, device start-ups began to try and fill the void between first-line glaucoma drugs, with their compliance issues, and end-stage surgeries, with their safety and durability limitations. ( See "Device Companies Set Their Sights on Glaucoma, Medtech Insight, October 2007 [2007400085].) But now, device companies are going head-to-head with drugs as a first-line therapy, hoping to improve glaucoma care and create an enormous device market in the process.
The Evolution of Glaucoma Devices: Blazing New Ground
The initial goal of device companies targeting the glaucoma market was to offer less invasive devices that would bring enough efficacy to replace or stave off the morbid surgeries that are typically reserved for the end stages of the disease. Among the first of these start-ups were NeoMedix Corp., founded in 1993 to develop a minimally invasive device called the Trabectome, and iScience Interventional, founded in 1999, which borrowed the idea of a catheter from interventional cardiology, creating a minimally invasive entryway to enable a variety of ophthalmic procedures, beginning with glaucoma.
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