Ciliatech Establishes KOL Advisory Board

Glaucoma treatment developer Ciliatech has appointed a panel of glaucoma surgeons to its newly created Key Opinion Leader (KOL) advisory board.

The seven members, each of them internationally recognized practicing surgeons, will guide Ciliatech on the latest thinking within ophthalmic and glaucoma surgery. The company will leverage the board’s ophthalmic medicine and surgical expertise to further develop the clinical and commercial strategy for the Intercil Uveal Spacer, its flagship product for treating glaucoma—the leading cause of irreversible blindness.

“As an anatomical target in glaucoma surgery, the supraciliary space has been garnering interest due to its distinct advantages in aqueous outflow. The Intercil Uveal Spacer’s ab externo surgical approach offers the potential to overcome the shortcomings of previous supraciliary products by seeking to provide the sustainable efficacy and safety which have to date, eluded our industry peers,” Ciliatech Co-Founder/CEO Olivier Benoit said. “Ciliatech is therefore excited and honored to welcome this board of global opinion leaders within the field of glaucoma surgery.”

Joining Ciliatech’s KOL advisory board are Professor Verena Prokosch, and Drs. Karl Mercieca and Karsten Klabe from Germany; Dr. Ziad Khoueir from Lebanon; and Professor Gus Gazzard and Drs. Leon Au and Andrew Tatham from the United Kingdom. Each new board member is considered a glaucoma surgery pioneer with unmatched track records in ophthalmic surgery and academia. The seven new members are well-published, attaining impressive achievements in both academic book chapters and key scientific publications.

“It’s always exciting working on new things coming through in glaucoma. But Intercil seems particularly interesting as it really is taking a genuinely different approach compared to anything else that we have in our armamentarium. The KOL advisory board is looking forward to working with the whole team at Ciliatech on this,” said Dr. Tatham, who also is president-elect of the U.K. and Eire Glaucoma Society.

The advisory board aims to guide Ciliatech’s efforts in marketing the Intercil Uveal Spacer, a device that works in an underused and underexplored treatment pathway—the supraciliary space—in a way that will benefit the maximum number of ophthalmic surgeons and patients worldwide. The number of people affected by glaucoma globally will increase to 111.8 million by 2040.

“As Ciliatech advances its CE mark application with a focus on its first commercial launches, we feel it is important to introduce our surgical glaucoma device, the Intercil Uveal Spacer, in an optimal way that will resonate with surgeons and bring benefits to the highest number of patients. At Ciliatech, we believe the best commercialization strategies are those that are ‘grounded in reality’ by the validation of accomplished opinion leaders within the field of expertise in which the product is being introduced. With these insights, we look forward to taking our product development to the next level, for the collective benefit of surgeons and patients who continue to endure the impacts of glaucoma,” Ciliatech Global Vice President of Glaucoma Sahil Syed noted.

There are several potential approaches to improve fluid draining from the eye to lower pressure. While having a range of options helps both surgeons and patients, it also can potentially create confusion about treatment algorithms, according to Ciliatech. Thus, it is important to work alongside expert opinion leaders in the field to better help the ophthalmic community understand precisely where its offering will add the most benefit.

Ciliatech is a medtech company focusing on treating glaucoma, a disease that affects 80 million people worldwide. The Intercil Uveal Spacer, an implant in the new “Cilioscleral interpositioning Device” (CID) category, reportedly will be the first proprietary glaucoma device that treats both the open and narrow angle forms of the disease. Three-year clinical trial follow-up of patients implanted with the device has yielded highly positive results in robust IOP-lowering coupled with a very high safety profile. Multiple clinical trials of the second-generation CID are in progress as the company pursues regulatory approvals. CID’s bespoke surgical implantation technique—facilitating external placement into the eye’s supraciliary space without entering the anterior chamber—sets it apart from other glaucoma procedures, Ciliatech claims.

Co-founded in 2017 by ophthalmic surgeon and inventor Dr. Philippe Sourdille, and Olivier Benoit, a veteran engineer and biotech entrepreneur, Ciliatech has to date raised €6 million ($6.5 million) and is expanding its scientific, medical and commercial team. The company is located near Annecy, France.