Second Sight Medical Adds to its Executive Roster

Second Sight Medical Products Inc., maker of implantable visual prosthetics to restore functional vision to blind patients, has added to its executive roster.

In a recent conference call discusses fourth-quarter results, the company’s leadership discussed several key hires as it continues the transition from an R&D-focused organization to a broad-scale commercial organization.

Anthony Moses has been appointed to the role of commercial vice president, Americas. He replaces Brian Mech, Second Sight’s vice president of business development, who, according to the company, will be leaving to pursue other opportunities. Mech will continue to serve as a consultant to the company during the transition. James Miller has been named to a newly created position, director of manufacturing.

“We are pleased to welcome both Tony Moses and Jim Miller, who join us at an important juncture in our organization’s growth,” said Robert Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Second Sight. “Their extensive skillsets and expertise will play an important role as we accelerate a number of key initiatives, including increasing market penetration of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System across multiple geographic areas, while striving to improve the overall quality of life by restoring vision to blind patients.”

According to Greenberg, Moses has more than 30 years of experience in the ophthalmic industry, including developing and marketing multiple product lines that address various applications in the operating room and medical office environments. He also has directed the commercialization of other retinal disease treatments.

“Jim has a proven track record as a successful operations manager and business systems professional who has worked with reputable names such as Boston Scientific,” Greenberg said. “We are confident that his experience will enhance our efforts to ramp up and streamline manufacturing, and ultimately, improve our output and yields while reducing costs.”

Greenberg also thanked Mech for his “considerable contribution” to Second Sight from early engineering efforts to supporting pre-clinical trials and most recently, launching the Argus II in the United States and Canada.

“We are grateful for his many years of service and wish him the best in his new venture,” Greenberg said.

Moses comes to Second Sight from Eye Therapies, where he served as president and directed the development of a next-generation platform for the treatment of various retinal diseases and oversaw all aspects of product development, clinical research, reimbursement and early commercial activity. Previously, he served as global vice president, sales, at Oraya Inc. While there, he directed the successful commercial launch of the IRay System for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration, focusing on activity in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland. Prior to that, he spent six years at NeoVista Inc. From 2004-2006, while at Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., he managed the introduction of groundbreaking technology to diagnose early stages of macular degeneration. He began his career at Storz Instrument Company. Moses received a bachelor of science degree from Missouri State University.

Prior to joining Second Sight, Miller worked at Boston Scientific as the value stream production manager. Among other responsibilities, he oversaw the start-up of neuromodulator manufacturing, providing direction for manufacturing-related decisions, including staffing, layouts, equipment capacity and product structures for spinal cord stimulators and bions. At Pantera Software, he served as senior manufacturing consultant specializing in enterprise resource planning and quality systems. Prior to that, he worked at Sunrise Medical, holding several positions of increasing responsibility in manufacturing and quality assurance, and at Everest & Jennings, where he began his career as an industrial engineer. He received a bachelor of science in production operations from California State University, Northridge, and is certified in production and inventory management.

Sylmar, Calif.-based Second Sight manufactures the Argus II retinal prosthesis intended to provide some useful vision to individuals with outer-retinal degenerations such as retinitis pigmentosa. The company is also developing the Orion I visual cortical prosthesis to restore some vision to individuals who are blind due to causes other than preventable or treatable conditions.