Pixium Vision has raised €10.6M by offering new shares on Euronext Paris. The funding will be used to develop its bionic vision device further and bring it closer to a European market authorization.
Pixium Vision, based in Paris, has raised €10.6M on Euronext Paris to continue the first clinical study of its PRIMA bionic vision system in five patients in France. The funding will also be used to conduct one study in the US and one in Europe in the first half of 2019.
So far, Pixium successfully restored central vision in three patients with age-related macular degeneration. The PRIMA device is implanted under a patient’s retina, where it detects infrared signals sent from specialized glasses the patient wears. The PRIMA micro-chip converts the infrared signals into electrical impulses and sends them to the brain via the optic nerve.
In January, Pixium implanted the device in a human for the first time. The patient reported “the first perception of light from the central zone where there was none previously” when PRIMA was activated a month later. Three out of the five patients in the trial have been implanted with the device. With the current fundraising, Pixium is one step closer to bringing the treatment to the 4 million patients affected by age-related macular degeneration.
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