A retinal chip clears EU sale in 30 countries for macular degeneration

38 patients · received the implant and gained an average of 25.5 letters (over five lines) on a standard eye chart · installedmeasured · Singularity Hub, 2026-07-31, citing the New England Journal of Medicine trial — Source states "a clinical trial involving 38 patients across five countries" who "gained an average of 25.5 letters". The 5 million people worldwide with geographic atrophy is the addressable populati

Science Corporation's PRIMA implant won a CE mark; trial patients read an average of 25.5 more letters on a standard eye chart.

Science Corporation, a California neurotech company, has won a CE mark for PRIMA, a retinal implant for geographic atrophy — the late stage of dry age-related macular degeneration, which destroys the macula and with it the sharp central vision used to read or recognise a face. The mark clears the device for sale in 30 European countries. First commercial implants are expected in Germany within weeks, with Italy, the Netherlands and the UK to follow. In the US it holds FDA Breakthrough and Humanitarian Use Device designations, not full approval.

The system pairs a chip smaller than a grain of rice, placed under the macula, with camera-mounted glasses that beam the scene to it as near-infrared light the eye cannot otherwise see. Like a solar panel, the chip converts that light into electrical pulses and stimulates bipolar cells — retinal neurons downstream of the photoreceptors the disease kills. In a 38-patient trial across five countries, published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, participants gained an average of 25.5 letters, more than five lines, on a standard eye chart.

More than five million people worldwide have geographic atrophy, and the two US drugs available only slow it. Nothing on the market restores what is lost. A CE mark moves that from a research question to something a clinic can order.

What it returns is narrow: black-and-white images, a very small field, and months of training after the implant. The company expects to fit 20 to 40 devices this year and 200 globally by the end of next, contingent on US approval in early 2027.

Source: Singularity Hub