Sam Brusco, Associate Editor08.30.22
Implantable visual prosthetic maker Second Sight Medical Products (Second Sight) has completed its merger with Nano Precision Medical (NPM), a biopharma business that develops miniaturized, subdermal drug implants via its Nano Portal tech to enable long-term, near constant-rate delivery.
The merger was first announced in February of this year.
Second Sight also changed its name to Vivani Medical due to the merger. The company’s common stock will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol “VANI”.
The company has about $55 million cash to advance development of its portfolio, including NPM-119 (exenatide implant) into clinical stage development to treat type 2 diabetes patients and advance the clinical-stage Orion visual prosthetic to treat patients with blindness.
The company will operate under NPM’s CEO Dr. Adam Mendelsohn and his leadership team.
“The completion of the merger marks a significant milestone for Vivani as we continue to grow the company with a strong team, sufficient funding, and an attractive group of investors who support our pursuit to develop and commercialize a new portfolio of miniaturized drug implants which can effectively address medication non-adherence, a major challenge in the treatment of chronic disease, including Type II diabetes. We are also committed to identifying a sustainable path forward to bring Second Sight’s Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes,” Dr. Mendelsohn told the press. “Our proprietary NanoPortal technology has broad potential across a wide range of therapeutic molecules. We anticipate that the first application of our technology will be ready to begin evaluation in humans around the end of this year with NPM-119. Medication non-adherence for Type II diabetes patients taking oral or injectable therapies is approximately 50%. We believe a six-month implant can provide an important alternative for non-adherent patients and the physicians who treat them.”
The merger was first announced in February of this year.
Second Sight also changed its name to Vivani Medical due to the merger. The company’s common stock will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol “VANI”.
The company has about $55 million cash to advance development of its portfolio, including NPM-119 (exenatide implant) into clinical stage development to treat type 2 diabetes patients and advance the clinical-stage Orion visual prosthetic to treat patients with blindness.
The company will operate under NPM’s CEO Dr. Adam Mendelsohn and his leadership team.
“The completion of the merger marks a significant milestone for Vivani as we continue to grow the company with a strong team, sufficient funding, and an attractive group of investors who support our pursuit to develop and commercialize a new portfolio of miniaturized drug implants which can effectively address medication non-adherence, a major challenge in the treatment of chronic disease, including Type II diabetes. We are also committed to identifying a sustainable path forward to bring Second Sight’s Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes,” Dr. Mendelsohn told the press. “Our proprietary NanoPortal technology has broad potential across a wide range of therapeutic molecules. We anticipate that the first application of our technology will be ready to begin evaluation in humans around the end of this year with NPM-119. Medication non-adherence for Type II diabetes patients taking oral or injectable therapies is approximately 50%. We believe a six-month implant can provide an important alternative for non-adherent patients and the physicians who treat them.”