Luminopia, Inc., announced it has raised an additional $16M in new capital. U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) led the oversubscribed Series A financing round, with participation from new investor Broadfin Advisors, as well as support from existing investors, ShangBay Capital and Vertical Group.
With the closing of the round, Casey Tansey, General Partner at USVP, will join Luminopia’s Board of Directors.
The funding will be used to support the full commercial rollout later this year of the company’s lead product, Luminopia, a software-based therapeutic for amblyopia, commonly known as “lazy eye,” the leading cause of vision loss among children.
Luminopia was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through the De Novo pathway in October 2021 and is currently available for prescription-use only through eye care professionals.
Luminopia is currently being prescribed at top eye institutes and private practices across the country and is dispensed through a retail pharmacy.
"U.S. Venture Partners is excited to support the team at Luminopia and be part of their journey as they seek to transform care and improve patient outcomes in an area of medicine that has seen relatively little innovation," said Casey Tansey, General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners. “We believe in the transformative power of their technology and the passionate and experienced team leading the launch.”
Luminopia is indicated for improvement in visual acuity in children, aged 4-7 with amblyopia associated with anisometropia and/or with mild strabismus. Luminopia allows patients to watch therapeutically modified TV shows and movies to improve their vision within a virtual reality (VR) headset and is the first FDA-approved digital therapeutic for children with amblyopia.
Luminopia is also unique among prescription digital therapeutics, as its mechanism of action has a direct treatment effect on patients’ vision. During the phase 3 pivotal trial, Luminopia improved vision by 1.8 lines on an eye chart in three months.
“We are thrilled to announce the successful close of our oversubscribed Series A round, which will allow us to advance our mission of pioneering a new class of treatments for the 15 million Americans who suffer from neuro-visual disorders,” said Scott Xiao, co-founder and CEO of Luminopia. “This significant investment not only reinforces the potential of our clinically validated amblyopia treatment, but also enables us to bring the first new therapy in decades to patients across the U.S. We are grateful to our investors for their support and belief in our vision.”
“Luminopia has the potential to revolutionize the way we treat amblyopia,” said Rupa Wong, MD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, and Managing Partner of Honolulu Eye Clinic. “By combining virtual reality with popular children’s media content, this innovative approach offers an engaging and personalized therapy option for patients and families in need. Luminopia’s binocular mechanism of action is a welcome advancement over monocular treatment options like eye-patching, which penalize the stronger eye without teaching the eyes how to work together properly.”
About Luminopia
Luminopia is the first FDA-approved digital therapeutic for a neuro-visual disorder, indicated to improve vision in children with amblyopia. With Luminopia, patients choose TV shows and movies to watch from a selection of 700+ hours of popular, engaging and educational content.
Dual-acting algorithms modify the selected videos in real-time within a virtual reality (VR) headset to promote weaker eye usage and encourage patients’ brains to combine input from both eyes. Unlike conventional treatments like eye-patching, blurring (atropine) eye drops, and other digital therapies, which just penalize the stronger eye, Luminopia teaches patients to use both eyes together in a unique, binocular manner.
Luminopia has been validated through a series of clinical trials, including a Phase 3 pivotal trial that demonstrated its safety and efficacy in children aged 4-7 with amblyopia.
The Phase 3 pivotal trial was the first successful, randomized, controlled trial of a novel amblyopia treatment in almost 15 years, and the results were published in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Pilot studies have also shown efficacy in older children and adolescents, where eye-patching and blurring (atropine) eye drops are largely ineffective.
Indications for Use for Luminopia
Luminopia is a software-only digital therapeutic designed to be used with commercially available head-mounted displays (HMDs), which are compatible with the software application.
Luminopia is indicated for improvement in visual acuity in amblyopia patients, aged 4-7, associated with anisometropia and/or with mild strabismus, having received treatment instructions (frequency and duration) as prescribed by a trained eye-care professional. Luminopia is intended for both previously treated and untreated patients; however, patients with more than 12 months of prior treatment (other than refractive correction) have not been studied.
Luminopia is intended to be used as an adjunct to full-time refractive correction, such as glasses, which should also be worn under the HMD during Luminopia therapy. Luminopia is intended for prescription use only, in an at-home environment.