Benzinga | Mar 5, 2021 08:07AM EST

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. Receives FDA Approval For Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System

Second Sight Medical Products (NASDAQ:EYES) a leading developer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to create an artificial form of useful vision for blind individuals, today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, a redesigned set of external hardware (glasses and video processing unit) initially for use in combination with previously implanted Argus II systems for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The Company expects that the Argus 2s will be adapted to be the external system for the next generation Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System currently under development.

In addition to ergonomic improvements, the Argus 2s system offers significantly more processing power, potentially allowing for improved video processing.

"We are very pleased to have received this approval, as it presents an opportunity to offer external hardware that we believe enhance comfort and aesthetics compared with the legacy Argus II system," said Matthew Pfeffer, acting CEO of Second Sight.

A decision on when or if to begin production of the newly approved hardware is pending completion of Second Sight's planned business combination with Pixium Vision, which currently is in progress. Should the business combination be completed, the new management team will then evaluate how best to proceed with the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, as well as all other products in development.