A proud Australian Ophthalmic Research and Development Organisation
Synopsis
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Botany, Sydney; nthalmic is a Research & Development Centre of Excellence, that develops and delivers products to address the unmet needs in rapidly growing fields of eye care. Our solutions aim to create innovative vision care products, that are not only affordable and accessible, but have superior performance and enable efficient vision care delivery.
nthalmic offers a complete product development package – we ideate, protect, prototype, validate and commercialise vision care solutions that solve consumer and industry problems attributed to a modern-day lifestyle. We currently collaborate with leading local and international universities, eye hospitals, lens manufacturers and world-renowned scientists.
In the three years since our inception, we have invented five myopia management products, in the process of prototyping a dry eye management wearable product, employed 14 staff in Australia, established a clinical trials facility following GCP guidelines, working within a quality management framework underpinned by 13485 guidelines and generated 30 provisional patent applications and followed them with a dozen PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaties) and national stage patent applications. All direct and indirect project costs for the first five projects have been fully funded.
“we aspire to become an Australian success story”
Our knowledge, skills, and intellectual property is homegrown – in Botany, New South Wales. We have received significant assistance from the Australian Government through the R&D tax incentive and COVID assistance. Whilst we acknowledge and appreciate the assistance of the Australian Government, we feel it is important to draw attention to the fact that all our current projects are funded by overseas investors and partners who acquire commensurate equity in the product.
“Our knowledge, skills and intellectual property is homegrown – in Botany, New South Wales.”
nthalmic aspires to become an Australian success story. We have established a platform to become a major player in the global eye care sector. However, we have become reliant on external capital and ownership, primarily from East Asia.
“$15m AUD worth or product are funded by overseas investors and partners”
We are seeking support from the Australian Government and investment sector to further develop and commercialise our dry eye management product: Meiboleyes. We seek to engage and support the Australian Government, Industry and Philanthropy to keep our future intellectual property and products in Australia, and further showcase our Australian expertise.5
Our Vision
To invent and develop novel products that enable everyone to lead more vibrant lives through improved vision and eye health.
Our Values
- Strive for excellence to enhance our knowledge through best practices
- Innovate and grow by practising idea meritocracy
- Maintain transparency with all stakeholders
- Achieve productivity through passion and hard work
- Integrity underpinned by sound moral and ethical principles
Our Goals
- Push the boundaries of science, innovation, and product development
- Assemble and develop a gifted multi-disciplinary team to do impactful work
- Build meaningful relationships with our team, collaborators, and communities
- Develop and nurture an exceptional organisational culture
Our Story
nthalmic, started with an entrepreneurial endeavour about three years ago. We have since employed and empowered a unique and exceptionally talented multi-disciplinary team of scientists, clinicians, and technology enthusiasts, to ideate and test products in high growth sectors of the eye care industry; myopia management and dry eye therapy.
Myopia management and dry eye therapy sectors are in high demand, especially in the Asia, United States and Europe. Through our partners and networks in Asia, we gradually secured strategic industry partnerships, including specialised lens manufacturers in Taiwan, investors in Asia, multisite clinical trials Spain, Portugal, India, and China.
We have now rapidly transitioned from a young organisation to an autonomous and modestly self-reliant organisation. We have attracted overseas partners and investors based on our ability to identify gaps, formulate solutions, patent, prototype and test our ideas, the track record of our team, and the projected market value of our future products.
Who are we?
- Our world-class scientists have an established track record in developing ophthalmic technology solutions.
- Over the last three years, we have filed 30 provisional patent applications in the ophthalmic technology field and followed them up with 12 PCT and national stage applications.
- We have collectively published more than 150+ peer-reviewed papers and hold numerous active patent applications at various stages of the intellectual property life cycle.
- We are an incubator and disruptor. We have the internal capacity to identify, patent, build, test, and translate our ideas. We regularly review, critique, evaluate, analyse the latest research, and conference abstracts to identify research trends and guide our priorities.
- We have the internal expertise to move our ideas along the product development pipeline rapidly. Our culture of innovation is embedded across all our work.
- We are committed to our mission – our whole team is motivated and passionate to succeed. While we are a young organisation, our drive to deliver scientific and clinical breakthroughs sets us apart.
- We collaborate with global research institutes, major eye hospitals, universities, contact lens and spectacle lens industry worldwide.
- Our solutions are tied to achieving our mission of “innovating the next-generation solutions for vision care.”
- We are agile, adaptable, and responsive
Locally Owned and Operated
All nthalmic companies are registered in Sydney, Australia, including the IP (Intellectual Property) holding company “nthalmic Holding Pty Ltd” and operational “nthalmic Pty Ltd”.
Australian Expertise
All our scientists have had their research training at Australian universities, including UNSW and, UWA , with eight PhDs. Some of us hold visiting academic and professorial positions with distinguished universities.
- Our team includes scientists, engineers, and clinicians, who can identify, test, analyse and develop our products collectively.
- Our engineers develop novel hardware and software platforms to test our innovative ideas.
- Our clinicians are Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registered have 20 years of experience in designing and conducting clinical trials.
- We have in-house clinical trials facilities with the latest clinical and biometric equipment, software systems, electronic data capturing systems and database infrastructure operating under GCP standards.
- Our business development team have held leadership positions in vision care and research institutes and are well connected within the spectacle and contact lens industry, especially in high growth markets.
Our Projects and future products
nthalmic has prioritised the development of dry eye and myopia management products to make them more effective and accessible to consumers and the ophthalmic market.
Dry eye disease (DED) affects up to 50% of the global population, costing $330M/yr. in Australia. Dry eye management is an established market with a broad scope, leading to product development opportunities with a significant return on investment
Myopia management is an emerging field of eye care, with significant awareness of the impact of myopia by the consumer in the Asian market. Currently, all 5 of our products associated with myopia management are fully funded by overseas entities, with commensurate ownership of intellectual property.
Dry Eye
Dry eye disease is mostly due to our ageing population, our environment, systemic disease, medication, and screen use. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is the leading cause of the disease.
The most common treatments for early MGD include a combination of artificial lubricant eye drops and eyelid warming and massage. Although artificial lubricant eye drops provide symptomatic relief, they rarely treat the underlying problem. Eyelid warming and massage helps to melt the oils, and massage helps remove the obstruction to allow the oils to be secreted onto the tear film. Sophisticated devices delivering sustained heat and massage are currently available but require treatment in-office. The cost of treatment prohibits access for most people.
Hence, the gap exists in the MGD market for a treatment that:
- Delivers sustained heat for the recommended period,
- Delivers massage to move the obstruction,
- Is affordable to increase accessibility to everyone and
- Can be used in the comfort of home and thus reduce health care visits.
Dry Eye Disease Program: Meiboleyes
Meiboleyes™ is nthalmic’s proprietary device for the treatment of MGD, which aims to deliver an affordable, at home dry eye management solution. Meiboleyes utilises ultra-thin wearable sensors and flexible electronics to form a wearable device. It will provide targeted and sustained temperatures and physical lid massage effects to treat dry eye. These features are controlled through a mobile app which provides reminders and records treatment allowing engagement with practitioners to aid in compliance.
nthalmic partnered with renowned experts in the field of dry eyes and smart wearables to advance its Meiboleyes™ device. Scientia Professor Fiona Stapleton from UNSW Sydney has extensive ability in translational research in ocular surface. She has published 270+ peer-reviewed publications and acted as committee lead in several international consensus workshops on dry eye disease including the pivotal report on the classification, diagnosis, and treatment of MGD. She leads the clinical trials group (the Eye Research Group) at UNSW Sydney, which has a strong track record of successful recruitment and completion of trials in dry eye and MGD, with access to state of the art clinical and diagnostic equipment.
The Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group from RMIT University are the leaders in the field of wearable electronic sensors. Professors Madhu Bhaskaran and Sharath Sriram jointly lead the team that works with industry and end-users to translate discoveries into devices, with an emphasis on improving health outcomes for vulnerable communities. The team at RMIT has access to advanced fabrication and manufacturing facilities for nanoelectronics, stretchable devices, wireless modules, and biosensors.
At this stage, Meiboleyes™ is being developed through an Australian multi-party collaboration between UNSW and RMIT. We have submitted funding grants via the Rapid Applied Research Translation grant and the CRC program.
We are currently in discussion with a major eye hospital and investor to take Meiboleyes™ to a funding stage. Nthalmic has already received enquiries from large ophthalmic instrument distributors for territory rights for the distribution of the product into the market.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| Meiboleyes Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $1.06b |
| Royalties | $53m |
Myopia
Myopia (i.e., short-sightedness) is a common refractive error of the eye that usually develops in childhood. For over a century, myopia was corrected using a single vision spectacle or contact lenses. Over the last few decades, the prevalence of myopia and high myopia has been rising at an alarming rate, with estimations that by 2050 half of the world’s population will be myopic, and one million people will be highly myopic. Given the increasing prevalence and the associations of high-myopia with sight-threatening diseases, progressive myopia poses a significant threat to the eye health of the global population.
Slowing the rate of myopia progression by 50% could decrease the prevalence of high myopia by up to 90%, significantly reducing the incidence of co-morbidities and economic burden on the health system. Considering the evidence-based research, the standard of care in clinical practice has shifted from correcting the symptoms to treating the underlying disorder.
An ideal myopia management solution should:
- provide a high level of efficacy with good visual performance
- sustain a high level of efficacy over a longer treatment period
- be accessible and affordable to all children
Myopia R&D Program 1: S.T.O.P® Contact Lenses
S.T.O.P® (or Spatio-Temporal Optical Phase), a novel approach to myopia management soft contact lens design. With S.T.O.P™ technology. The optical and dynamic features within S.T.O.P® contact lenses create a dynamic optical signal on the retina, which is proposed to decelerate the rate of myopia progression and minimise the decay of treatment effect, maintaining efficacy rate over a prolonged period. Careful consideration has been taken in the design to optimise visual performance, an attribute which is currently being evaluated in a dispensing clinical trial.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| S.T.O.P ® Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $310m |
| Royalties | $15.5m |
Myopia R&D Program 2: S.T.O.P® KIT for Spectacle lenses
The S.T.O.P® Kit provides an affordable myopia management spectacle lens option. This is a novel approach, a first of a kind in the myopia management market, where optical films adhered to the wearer’s spectacle lenses provide the eye with varied optical cues to reduce myopia progression. The increased access to S.T.O.P® Kit treatment is beneficial on the individual level, where the myopia progression of each user will be minimised, as well as on a global level, reducing the incidence of co-morbidities and the economic burden on the health system.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| S.T.O.P ® Kit Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $336m |
| Royalties | $16m |
Myopia R&D Program 3: A.R.R.E.S.T® Contact Lenses
nthalmic is currently developing novel ophthalmic lens solutions based on providing an A.R.R.E.S.T® signal (Active Rise in Retinal Encoding of Spatio-Temporal signal), a cue that purposefully modulates the on- and off-centre retinal ganglion cell activity to slow the rate of progressive myopia. Ophthalmic lens designs utilising the A.R.R.E.S.T® signal are one of the first designs that do not use an optical defocus or scatter to manage progressive myopia.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $310m |
| Royalties | $15.5m |
Myopia R&D Program 4: A.R.R.E.S.T® Spectacles Kit
nthalmic is currently developing novel ophthalmic lens designs based on providing an A.R.R.E.S.T® (Active Rise in Retinal Encoding of Spatio-Temporal) signal. This signal regulates retinal ganglion cell activity to slow the rate of progressive myopia. Ophthalmic lens designs utilising the A.R.R.E.S.T® signal are one of the first designs that do not use optical defocus or scatter to manage progressive myopia.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| A.R.R.E.S.T® Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $336m |
| Royalties | $16m |
Myopia R&D Program 5: P.A.U.S.E.®
nthalmic is currently developing novel spectacle lens solutions based on P.A.U.S.E® (Phase Alteration Utilising Sub Elements) technology, which corrects underlying myopia while creating an extension of depth of focus cues at multiple locations on the retina to slow the rate of myopia progression.
| Estimated Global Market Value | 10 years |
| P.A.U.S.E® Wholesale Sales Revenue (USD) | $1,019m |
| Royalties | $196m |
Conclusion
Nthalmic seeks to engage and partner with the Australian Government, academics and industry to continue to create new knowledge and products that will benefit Australians, our economy, and our standing as a global leader in the ideation, creation, and development of novel health care products
We seek a partnership and support with the Australian Government to develop and commercialise our dry eye product, Meiboleyes, into the local and international market.
