OC Business Journal

Canadian firm with OC ties to buy Irvine’s AcuFocus

MEDTECH: FDA OK for cataract treatment

■ By PETER J. BRENNAN

AcuFocus Inc., an Irvine-based maker of devices to treat cataracts, often compares its products to a camera, saying it applies the “depth-of-focus” principle commonly used in

photography.

The future of the self-described “small aperture company” has come into focus in the past eight months, with a string of successes for one of the better-funded privately held companies in Orange County’s vital ophthalmological device maker industry.

The Food and Drug Administration in July approved the company’s IC-8 Apthera intraocular lens (IOL), the first and only small aperture non-toric extended depth of focus IOL for certain cataract patients.

Then on Jan. 6, the company announced a South Dakota doctor has commercially implanted the first patients with the IC-8 Apthera, marking a milestone start of the commercial release of the device.

On Jan. 17, Bausch + Lomb Corp.,a Canadian-based firm with a $6.1 billion market cap (NYSE/TSX: BLCO) and prior ties to OC, announced it would acquire AcuFocus.

Terms of the sale were undisclosed. Since its 2001 founding, AcuFocus has raised more than $180 million.

“Bausch + Lomb is a legacy name in eyecare with a fully integrated portfolio of offerings in eye health,” AcuFocus Chief Executive Al Waterhouse said in a statement. “We believe Bausch + Lomb is best positioned to educate physicians about the IC-8 Apthera lens, and ultimately, ensure more cataract patients have access to this new IOL.”

Who’s Who

The acquisition marks the latest success for Orange County’s ophthalmology industry, which includes Aliso Viejo’s Glaukos Corp. (NYSE: GKOS), which has a $2.3 billion market cap, and Lake Forest’s Staar Surgical Co. (Nasdaq: STAA), which counts a $3.4 billion market cap.

AcuFocus’ investors and executives have included the who’s who of Orange County’s ophthalmology industry, including Bill Link and Jim Mazzo, both of whom have served as its chairmen. Mazzo, who also served as CEO of AcuFocus, was responsible for hiring Waterhouse first as president in 2015 and then promoting him to CEO a year later.

“I’m very proud of the AcuFocus team led by Al Waterhouse,” Mazzo told the Business Journal.

“This technology will expand Bausch + Lomb’s product offering. It allows Bausch + Lomb to offer a very innovative product in the very fast-growing refractive marketplace.”

Georgia Origins

AcuFocus was founded in 2001 in a suburban Atlanta business incubator, Innovation Factory LLC, which has ties to Versant Ventures Management LLC,a venture capital firm headed by Link, who is known for several astute investments in medical devices. AcuFocus in 2004 moved to Orange County.

Over the years, investors have included Medtronic, KKR & Co., Versant Venture as well as Bausch + Lomb, which under a prior ownership structure counted its surgical base in Aliso Viejo.

Cataracts are a common condition affecting an estimated 94 million people worldwide. The global premium cataract IOL market is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate around 13% between 2022 and 2027. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 24 million people have cataract, a number that is expected to double to 50 million by 2050.

Cataracts can only be treated with surgery in which the cloudy natural lens is removed and an IOL is implanted. Many patients receive a monofocal IOL at the time of cataract surgery, which may correct for distance vision, but not for presbyopia, which makes it hard to see objects closely.

The Solution

Some available presbyopia-correcting IOLs have complex optics that split, shift or stretch light to provide clear vision at more than one discrete focal point.

In contrast, AcuFocus says its IC-8 Apthera IOL features proprietary small aperture technology that enables both distance vision correction and near vision correction to mitigate the effects of presbyopia.

“Cataracts are the largest contributor to global blindness in adults aged 50 years and older, with more than 15 million individuals, or approximately 45% of the more than 33 million cases of global blindness,” Bausch + Lomb Chief Executive Joseph Papa said in the statement.

“We believe that the IC-8 Apthera EDOF IOL will bolster our surgical portfolio by enhancing our IOL offerings, which is a strategic area of focus for Bausch + Lomb.”

Known as the IC-8 IOL in global markets, this IOL is already available in select markets across Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

AcuFocus’ exclusive financial adviser was BofA Securities while its legal adviser was Latham & Watkins LLP. Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP served as legal adviser to Bausch + Lomb.

NEWS

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2023-02-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://ocbusinessjournal.pressreader.com/article/281505050367921

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