BOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Vycor Medical,
Inc. ("Vycor") (OTCBB: VYCO) today announced that its wholly owned
subsidiary, NovaVision Inc. ("NovaVision") has acquired all the
shares of Sight Science Ltd. ("Sight Science")
(www.sightscience.com). As part of this acquisition, Professor
Arash Sahraie has joined NovaVision
as its Chief Scientific Officer on a part-time secondment basis
from the University of Aberdeen
(www.abdn.ac.uk/research) for a minimum of five years. Prof.
Sahraie will be responsible for driving NovaVision's scientific
effort to develop and validate pioneering technologies in vision
rehabilitation for visual field defects resulting from brain
injury. The acquisition will also create a long-term relationship
with the University of Aberdeen, a
leading medical research center, and NovaVision will have a first
option to acquire all related visual field deficit technologies
developed within the University over a five-year period.
Sight Science was established in 2009 based on the research of
Professor Arash Sahraie at the
University of Aberdeen. Sight Science, which is owned jointly
by Prof. Sahraie and the University of
Aberdeen, provides an interactive computer-based therapy
called Neuro-Eye Therapy ("NeET"), which patients administer at
home. To date, over 100 patients have utilized NeET. The Company
has a meaningful patent portfolio with patents granted in the UK,
France, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. Prof. Sahraie has conducted
extensive research on blindsight and residual visual processing
after brain injury, and is highly regarded in the field.
Both NovaVision's Vision Rehabilitation Therapy ("VRT") and
Sight Science's NeET work on the basis that repeated stimulation of
the blind areas by either bright patches of light (VRT) or the
specific spatial patterns (NeET) can lead to increased sensitivity
of the blind areas. Patients progress after VRT appears to be
initiated at the blind and sighted borders whereas NeET results in
changes deep within the field damage. Both therapies are able to
demonstrate improvements in both visual sensitivity and activities
of daily living. The two companies believe that their therapies are
highly complementary.
Sight Science will represent a significant enhancement of
NovaVision's operations:
- Prof. Sahraie will further strengthen NovaVision's Strategic
Advisory Board currently made up of: Alvaro
Pascual-Leone, Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Research at
the Cognitive Neurology Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center; Jason S. Barton, Professor
of Neurology, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia; and Jose Romano, Chief of Stroke Division and
Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
- NovaVision views NeET as a strong complementary therapy to its
existing VRT, and the merged entity intends to be able to deliver a
combined therapy in due course which NovaVision believes will
enhance patient outcomes and potentially increase market adoption
and revenue growth.
- Sight Science has a strong position in the UK and, together
with NovaVision's operations in Germany, the Company believes that the
acquisition will considerably strengthen NovaVision's ability to
penetrate the European market and increase European revenues.
- A strong alliance is created with the University of Aberdeen and NovaVision acquires an
option on all future related technologies for a period of five
years developed at the university.
- Strengthens Vycor's patent portfolio, and provides valuable
additional patents for the development of NovaVision's next
generation of therapies.
David Cantor, the President of
Vycor, commented: "We are delighted to be acquiring Sight Science,
which we believe is a major strategic move and demonstrates our
commitment to making NovaVision the 'Gold Standard' in Visual
Rehabilitation. We are also thrilled that Professor Sahraie
has agreed to join us as NovaVision's Chief Scientific Officer,
bringing a wealth of knowledge and credibility in the field. He
will work closely with NovaVision's Strategic Advisory Board to
drive the scientific development of our therapies, products and
overall scientific strategy."
Professor Sahraie, founder of Sight Science, commented: "Our two
companies pride themselves in promoting technologies that improve
life for those affected by blindness post brain injury. There
is immense knowledge and expertise in both organizations and I
believe this merger will enable the development of the next
generation of innovative and pioneering technologies, leading to
highly complementary therapies which would not have been available
otherwise. I strongly believe that our combined therapies
have the potential to become 'standard of care' worldwide and to
reach all those affected by visual field defect after brain
injury."
About Vycor Medical, Inc.
With corporate headquarters in Boca
Raton, FL, Vycor Medical, Inc. (VYCO.BB) is a medical device
company committed to making neurological brain, spinal and other
surgical procedures safer and more effective. The company's
flagship, Patent Pending ViewSite™ Surgical Access Systems
represent an exciting new minimally invasive access and retraction
system that holds the potential for speedier, safer and more
economical brain, spinal and other surgeries and a quicker patient
discharge. Vycor's innovative medical instruments are
designed to optimize neurosurgical site access, reduce patient
risk, accelerate recovery, and add tangible value to the
professional medical community. Vycor is ISO 13485:2003 compliant,
has FDA 510(K) clearance for brain and spine surgeries, and CE
Marking and HPB licensing in Canada.
Vycor Medical's subsidiary NovaVision, Inc. researches, develops
and provides science-driven light-based neurostimulation therapy
and other medical technologies that help restore sight to patients
with neurological vision impairments. The company's
proprietary, Visual Restoration Therapy (VRT) platform is
clinically supported to improve lost vision resulting from stroke,
brain cancer, traumatic brain injury ("TBI"), or other acquired
brain injury, and has been 510(K) cleared to be marketed in the US
by the FDA. VRT can be prescribed by any ophthalmologist,
optometrist, neurologist or physiatrist. NovaVision also provides a
device that aids in the early identification of visual field
deficits: the Head Mounted Perimeter (HMP™) - a portable and
ADA-compliant instrument to aid in the detection and measurement of
visual field deficits even in bed-ridden patients.
For the latest information on the company, including media and
other coverage, and to learn more, please go online at
www.vycormedical.com or www.novavision.com.
About Sight Science Limited
The Scientific Basis
It has been documented for over four decades that those losing
sight after brain injury may still be able to discriminate visual
targets presented in their blind field, and that they may or may
not have any awareness of their ability to do so. This phenomenon
is called Blindsight.
In a study published in 1994, Barbur and colleagues demonstrated
that if a patient was much better in detecting visual patterns with
specific properties. In scientific terms, this meant that not all
visual information could get through an injured brain, but only
specific stimuli could be processed. Furthermore Barbur's study
showed that both patches of light (uniform blobs), and spatial
patterns of light and dark (gratings) could be detected within the
blind areas.
The observations resulting from the Barbur study resulted in two
approaches to exploring the rehabilitation of patients with visual
field defects, both seeking to address whether a patient's lost
vision can be rehabilitated by increasing its sensitivity after
repeatedly showing the patient patches of light or specific spatial
patterns.
The first approach was followed by Sabel and colleagues and led
to development of VRT developed at NovaVision. The second approach
taken by Prof. Sahraie and colleagues and has led to development of
Vision Rehabilitation Program (VRP) CE, used in
NeET.
NeET
Prof. Sahraie and colleagues at the University of Aberdeen, continued the work of
Barbur on spatial processing in cortically blind patients. He
extended the previous findings to a larger group of patients.
His first ten patient study showed that certain stimuli detection
could be as high as 100% even when objects were shown deep in the
blind area. To develop his Vision Rehabilitation Program (NeET),
Prof. Sahraie developed a patented proprietary therapy which
delivered the therapy in the same manner as NovaVision's VRT on a
computer in the patient's home. The therapy is one of daily
sensitization of the patient's blind field and requires the patient
to undertake a 25-30 minute daily task. The computer-based task
determines the patient's detection accuracy when a pattern was
presented in conjunction with auditory signals.
Simplistically, if the person did not see it, they would be at the
same probability level (50%) as tossing a coin.
Prof. Sahraie's therapy shows patterns at different locations
within the patient's blind field. His work has shown that
although initially the patients perform at or above the 50% level,
over time, they improve and eventually have very high percentage
recognition. In addition, patients develop awareness of patterns
presented, being able to report the presence of visual targets
within their previously blind field. The program is interactive
and, as the patients improve, the task gets more difficult by
making the targets dimmer.
Safe Harbor Statement
Information in this document constitute forward-looking
statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "forecast",
"anticipate", "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "should",
"believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
involve, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties
and other factors which could cause Vycor Medical's actual results,
performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from
the future results, performance (financial or operating) or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more
fully discussed in Vycor Medical's filings with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements
attributable to Vycor Medical herein are expressly qualified in
their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. Vycor
Medical disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking
statements contained in this estimate, except as may be required by
law.
Contact:
Karen Coviello, Vycor
Medical, Inc.
kacoviello@novavision.com
561-558-2000 ext 218
SOURCE Vycor Medical, Inc.