Our focus this month is on Clerio Vision, a company using femtosecond laser technology in contact lens and corneal applications. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Clerio Vision CEO, Alex Zapesochny.

ALEX ZAPESOCHNY
CEO, CLERIO VISION

Mr. Zapesochny, please tell us about your company in terms of its history and direction.

Clerio Vision’s history began well before our founding in 2014. At the University of Rochester in the 1980s, groundbreaking work took place in inventing chirped pulse amplification, an underlying technology key to femtosecond lasers. In 2003, Bausch + Lomb engaged with Dr. Wayne Knox, now Clerio’s chief science officer, to investigate ways to apply this technology in the contact lens space. This collaboration lasted for approximately 10 years and eventually led to the university having intellectual property around which a new startup could form.

What became the founding team of Clerio Vision had previously worked with the University of Rochester Medical Center in the cardiovascular and clinical trials space. We had credibility with the university, and we saw exciting potential in the technology. That’s when Clerio Vision was founded in its own right.

Two main product development programs fall under the Clerio Vision umbrella. One involves applying our technology to modify refractive index directly in corneal tissue, which enables a non-invasive form of refractive surgery that improves upon laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). The second program focuses on utilizing this technology in contact lenses, specifically to develop multifocal lenses that use diffractive optics.

Tell us about any new developments in which Clerio Vision is involved.

We initiated human trials for our non-invasive refractive surgery procedure at the end of 2018. Another trial is slated to start later this year.

On the contact lens side, we developed what we believe is the first properly functioning diffractive multifocal contact lens in 2019. Diffractive optics help resolve the visual compromise and loss of acuity in low-light conditions that occur with refractive multifocal optics. We are on schedule to submit for 510K clearance later in 2021, and we plan to launch in 2022.

Our femtosecond-based manufacturing process enables unique optical patterns to be embedded into contact lenses. Our patterns are about 10 microns in width, and they’re placed within a thin and comfortable contact lens. This eliminates the discomfort issues with previous diffractive multifocals that had ridges or echelettes on the lens surface. Our multifocals are built using the Extreme H2O platform, which we acquired about two years ago and features a monomer that is conducive to our writing process and is known for its ability to retain moisture and for providing good end-of-day comfort.

Tell us your vision for the contact lens field in the short term (less than 5 years) and in the long term (20 years from now).

In the next five years, contact lenses to slow myopia progression will continue to advance. Clerio Vision is one of various companies researching how to improve soft lens-based treatments to be more efficacious at slowing myopia progression in a wider array of children.

Also in the next five years, we believe that we will see more personalized corrections available for contact lenses. For instance, we will be able to run a batch of one set of lenses in a cost-effective way. Our sense is that there will be an emerging group of companies that will be able to provide more personalized corrections.

In the long term, we look forward to some of the new ways that contact lenses will be utilized. We’ve just seen a lens receive approval to deliver medication to the ocular surface. That is one particular area that over the next 20 years will be an exciting technology to help with compliance for many ocular medications. CLS