LAKE FOREST, Calif.– STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of implantable lenses and companion delivery systems for the eye, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of the EVO/EVO+ Visian® Implantable Collamer® Lens (“EVO”) for the correction of myopia and myopia with astigmatism. Myopia, which is also known as nearsightedness or the need for distance vision correction, is the most common vision disorder globally and its prevalence is rapidly growing.1 An estimated 100 million U.S. adults ages 21 to 45 who have myopia are potential candidates for EVO, a biocompatible implantable lens that corrects distance vision.2
“Following FDA approval, prospective patients in the U.S. and their doctors may now consider EVO for achieving Visual Freedom from the limitations, ongoing maintenance and inconvenience associated with glasses and contact lenses,” said Caren Mason, President and CEO of STAAR Surgical. “Over one million EVO lenses have already been implanted by doctors outside the U.S. and 99.4% of EVO patients in a survey have stated they would have the procedure again.3 The EVO lens is additive, provides excellent quality of vision day and night, does not cause dry eye syndrome and is removable by a doctor, if ever so desired.4,5,6 Sales of EVO lenses outside the U.S. increased 51% in 2021 and have more than doubled since 2018, which speaks to the increasing choice by patients and our surgeon partners for EVO as the premium and primary solution for refractive vision correction. Surgeons will be trained and certified for EVO, and begin implanting EVO in the coming days and weeks in select cities. Commercialization of EVO in the U.S. will begin immediately and be supported by a nationwide advertising, marketing and public relations campaign. We wish to express our great appreciation for the outstanding work of our esteemed principal investigator surgeons and their staffs who enrolled patients, implanted and conducted follow-up per the clinical trial protocol during the most challenging of times.”
STAAR’s Implantable Collamer lenses have been improving vision in patients for more than 20 years globally. EVOs are implanted within the posterior chamber of the eye directly behind the iris and in front of the natural crystalline lens. Earlier versions of the Visian ICL lens in the U.S. required a preoperative peripheral iridotomy that is now eliminated with EVO, thereby optimizing patient comfort and time efficiency for both the surgeon and the patient. EVO offers a lens-based alternative for the correction/reduction of refractive error in people who currently use glasses and/or contact lenses for distance vision correction. A U.S. multicenter, prospective clinical investigation confirmed the safety of the EVO family of myopia lenses. There are now more than 100 clinical papers available discussing the safety and efficacy of the Visian ICL family of lenses globally.
Scott D. Barnes, MD, Chief Medical Officer of STAAR Surgical, stated, “We are thrilled to make EVO available to U.S. surgeons and patients seeking a proven and premium option to glasses, contact lenses or laser vision correction. Today’s announcement is especially important because the prevalence of myopia is increasing quickly, and COVID precautions have presented additional challenges to people wearing glasses and/or contact lenses. EVO adds an important tool for the ophthalmic surgeon seeking to help improve a patient’s quality of life. Different from LASIK, the EVO lens is added to the patient’s eye through a relatively quick surgical procedure where there is no removal of corneal tissue. Moreover, the EVO lens is removable by a doctor if ever desired. Results from our recent U.S. clinical trial are consistent with the more than one million EVO lenses that have already been implanted around the world.”
