MicroShunt gets $32.8 million infusion

InnFocus secured $32.8 million in Series C financing to fund the study of its MicroShunt glaucoma drainage system, according to a press release.

The financing, which includes investors Hoya Corporation, Saints Capital Everest, Santen Pharmaceutical and Crown Venture Fund, will fund the system’s final phase of clinical trials.

The prospective randomized study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the MicroShunt as an alternative surgical treatment for all stages of primary open-angle glaucoma.

More than 300 patients have been treated in the Phase 1 study, including 100 cases in the United States. Patients treated outside the United States, with up to 3 years of follow-up, show a mean IOP decrease from about 25 mm Hg on medications at baseline to below 15 mm Hg with the majority of patients completely removed from medications at 3 years.

Developed with the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the drainage implant consists of a small micro-tube that shunts aqueous fluid from the anterior chamber to a sub-conjunctival/sub-Tenon flap. The shunt was designed to maintain IOP in the mid to low teens.