Lensar files for bankruptcy

Femtosecond laser developer and manufacturer Lensar has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, announcing in a press release their intent for a strategic restructuring in partnership with their senior secured lender, PDL BioPharma Inc.

A filling outlining the plan to reduce Lensar’s debt and convert PDL’s outstanding debt into equity to facilitate financial support is expected soon. Lensar will continue to pay all current employee wages, benefits and operating costs to keep business running as normal.

Lensar markets a femtosecond laser system designed specifically for cataract surgery featuring a 3D augmented reality reconstruction of the anterior segment from high speed imaging for accurate corneal incisions, free-floating capsulotomies and lens fragmentation. Alphaeon Corporation acquired Lensar at the end of 2015 for $59 million in cash, stock and assumed debt.

“Given the growing aging population globally, with more than 22 million cataracts treated annually, I am very optimistic about the future of refractive cataract surgery and the opportunity to work with PDL,” CEO Nicholas Curtis said in the press release. “We expect to continue changing the paradigm for how surgeons treat cataract patients and improving visual outcomes, seamlessly incorporating the preoperative diagnostics into the laser treatment to manage preexisting and surgically induced astigmatism affecting nearly all cataract patients.”

The company expects the chapter 11 case will be concluded by the second quarter of 2017.