Lentechs, a clinical-stage ophthalmic medical device company developing a new generation of soft, suspended contact lens, designed to transform the treatment paradigm for presbyopia, today announced key results in a milestone clinical trial evaluating its investigational contact lens for patients with presbyopia and presbyopia with astigmatism.
Presbyopia is a natural part of aging characterized by a gradual loss of the eyes’ ability to focus on objects up close and impacts 120 million people in the United States and 2 billion worldwide.1 Currently available multifocal contact lenses often force a visual compromise, leading most presbyopes to choose glasses over a preference for contact lenses.2
Building on its robust R&D program as it develops a new generation of soft contact lens, analysis from the 7-day visual acuity primary endpoint showed that patients wearing APIOC experienced improved distance vision vs their successful, habitual, multifocal contact lenses, or vision comparable to their habitual prescription glasses. Specifically, the analysis showed:
- Patients reported clinically meaningful, statistically significant improvement in high-and low-contrast distance vision with APIOC over their habitual multifocal contact lenses, while maintaining vision up close and in-between
- Patients reported comparable vision at distance, intermediate and near, with APIOC as with their habitual prescription glasses
- Comfort was generally comparable to patients’ habitual multifocal contact lens
“These results provide tremendous evidence that APIOC helps solve the visual compromise caused by currently available multifocal contact lenses,” said President and Chief Executive Officer of Lentechs, Mr. Robin G. Sears. “Data show that only 10-15% of presbyopes currently wear contact lenses, yet 70% of glasses wearing presbyopes want to wear them2,3 —APIOC will be the contact lens that finally helps bridge that divide for patients and practitioners.”
Designed specifically with presbyopes in mind, APIOC™ is a patented, first-of-its-kind line of soft, suspended contact lens designed to deliver exceptional, glasses-like vision at all distances. APIOC is first and foremost designed to utilize the eye’s anatomy rather than conform to it. Unlike traditional contact lenses, APIOC is suspended behind the upper eyelid, allowing for free, translational (up and down) eye movement, behind the rotationally stable, centered contact lens. By allowing the eye to freely move behind the APIOC lens, wearers can access the specific prescription needed for each visual distance correction. “Dr. Melissa Bailey and I envisioned a novel, translating, soft contact lens that was easy to fit and reliable for patients with presbyopia. It’s very rewarding to see these results from our clinical study with real-world patients,” stated Chief Medical Officer of Lentechs, Dr. Joseph Barr.
Lentechs board member and former Global President, Vision Care for Bausch and Lomb and former Johnson & Johnson Vision executive, Peter Valenti added, “These data represent some of the most promising results I’ve ever seen for solving the vision challenges presbyopes face in their desire to wear contact lenses. APIOC is a game-changer for optometrists and patients and will help give presbyopes the vision they deserve from a contact lens.”
1 Review of Optometric Business. 2013. Presbyopia Expected to Impact Billions Worldwide. Retrieved from: https://www.reviewob.com/presbyopia-expected-to-impact-billions-worldwide-3/
2 Rueff & Bailey, Presbyopic and Non-Presbyopic Contact Lens Opinions and Vision Correction Preferences,
Contact Lens & Anterior Eye, Volume 40, Issue 5, P323-328, October 01, 2017.
3 Data on file, Lentechs. APIOC Concept, Quantitative Market Research Study, June 2020.
