O.C. company is sold for $400 million

September 3rd, 2009, 11:30 am · 7 Comments · posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

Visiogen Inc., in Irvine has been acquired by Abbott for $400 million in cash. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

Visiogen’s main product is the Synchrony lens that allows patients to see well at near, intermediate and far distances without glasses or contacts, reduces glare and nighttime halos, and improves contrast sensitivity.

The company raised $40 million in April to put the lens on the market, bringing its total venture capital investment to $97 million. In different times, Visiogen would go public, but the IPO market has been virtually dead for more than a year.

Abbott is buying its way into the vision care segment, rather than starting from scratch. Its initial purchase was Advanced Medical Optics, also in Orange County, in February. The Visiogen purchase gives Abbott proven next-generation technology to address presbyopia for cataract patients.

“Visiogen’s Synchrony lens allows Abbott Medical Optics to enter the growing accommodating intraocular lens segment and enhances our premium portfolio that includes the Tecnis Multifocal lens,” said Jim Mazzo, president of Abbott Medical Optics.

Visiogen founder and CEO Reza Zadno said, “We are thrilled to join forces with Abbott to bring this much-anticipated technology to market. The global clinical results with Synchrony are extremely encouraging, and the opportunity to leverage Abbott Medical Optics’ extensive commercialization infrastructure means that many more patients will

Synchrony lens is inserted in the eye using a preloaded injector. Photo: Visiogen

benefit from this exciting advancement in cataract and presbyopia correction.”

Intraocular lenses are implanted in a patient’s eye after the removal of the natural lens that has become clouded by a cataract. Conventional monofocal lenses are designed to focus primarily at a distance and not to correct presbyopia, an age-related change in vision in which the eye’s lens can no longer adjust its focal length to allow clear vision at different distances.

A common symptom of presbyopia is blurry close-up vision. Presbyopia usually begins after the age of 40 and is estimated to affect more than a billion people worldwide. Visiogen’s Synchrony is designed to mimic the eye’s natural capacity to change focus, with the potential to deliver a full range of vision. It has been implanted in 1,200 eyes.

Synchrony has been available commercially in Europe since January 2009, and is currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration for sale in the United States.

“This acquisition demonstrates Abbott’s continued commitment to vision care. Combining Visiogen’s accommodating lens technology with Abbott’s existing medical optics portfolio expands our ability to offer a diverse set of refractive options to our ophthalmic customers and the patients they serve,” said Abbott executive John M. Capek.

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