Second Sight

About Second Sight

Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. was a medical device company established in 1998 with the objective of developing implantable visual prosthetics for individuals who are blind. The company was founded by Alfred Mann, Dr. Sam Williams, and Gunnar Bjorg, and it was headquartered in Sylmar, California, with a European office in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company's primary focus was on creating a retinal prosthesis to restore a degree of sight to individuals suffering from outer retinal degenerations, most notably Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP).

The company's flagship product was the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System. This device functions by converting video images from a small camera mounted on a patient's glasses into electrical pulses. These pulses are transmitted wirelessly to an electrode array implanted on the retina's surface, stimulating the remaining viable retinal cells to create the perception of light patterns in the brain. The Argus II was the first device of its kind to receive both CE mark approval in Europe and FDA approval in the United States. Revenue was primarily generated from the sale of the Argus II systems to healthcare providers and institutions.

Second Sight's journey included significant milestones such as the first clinical trial of its initial device, Argus I, in 2002. This was followed by the development and subsequent trials of the more advanced Argus II, which began in 2006 and led to its commercialization in Europe in 2011 and the U.S. in 2014. The company also began development on the Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System, designed to bypass the optic nerve and directly stimulate the brain's visual cortex, potentially serving a much larger patient population. However, the company faced financial difficulties, and in 2020, it announced intentions to wind down operations. Following a failed merger attempt with Pixium Vision in 2021, Second Sight Medical Products merged with NanoPrecision Medical, Inc. in 2022 to form a new entity, Vivani Medical, Inc.