Keratoconus is a rather unknown disease and very difficult to diagnose. It affects the cornea of the eye, which gradually loses its normal curvature and becomes conical, causing vision to distort. It usually appears in adolescence and, initially, it is believed to be myopia. But, as the cornea deforms, glasses or contact lenses are no longer useful to improve patients' vision. This is when it is detected that it is not myopia but keratoconus and the damage, many times, is already irreparable.
[subscribe_newsletter_esp]
This progressive degenerative disease has no cure, although there are different treatments to slow its evolution, such as prostheses to flatten the cornea. However, when keratoconus is already very advanced, the only solution is a cornea transplant, a complicated operation that the body usually rejects and that, moreover, has to be repeated over time, considering that keratoconus begins in youth.
Pere del Campo has dedicated his entire career to this pathology, treating patients and developing different products, and now he has decided to go a step further, creating a device that allows detecting it in time, before it degenerates and excessively affects vision. The Barcelona-based company Cornea Project is developing a device that will diagnose keratoconus by analyzing the presence of biomarkers found in the corneas of patients with this pathology. In the future, work will be done to add the detection of other biomarkers to the device, with the aim of diagnosing diseases such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or diabetic retinopathy.
"There is no machine in the world that does this," Del Campo remarks. The optician and entrepreneur explains that the device will prevent cornea transplants ---keratoconus is the second leading cause worldwide--- and will also help ophthalmologists who have to perform operations for myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. These interventions have been reduced by 40% in the last ten years because, if performed on undiagnosed keratoconus patients, the postoperative consequences are very serious, and doctors prefer to avoid them when they see that patients may have symptoms of keratoconus.
Funding round in Capital Cell
To develop this medical device, with the collaboration of the American company Invetech, Cornea Project opened a funding round last Thursday to obtain 700,000 euros through the Capital Cell platform, and by Saturday morning, three days later, they had already secured 65%, about 455,000 euros. "We are very happy. It has had a very good response from ophthalmologists and distributors in the sector," says Del Campo, who highly values that a significant part of the resources is coming from professionals who know the disease.
In the last five years, since its foundation, Cornea Project has obtained two million euros in public and private funding. Currently, it has funds to conduct research on the device with Eurecat and Leitat. Its main investor is AJL Ophtalmics, a leading Spanish company in the treatment of keratoconus, which already contributed 270,000 euros of share capital to the company and will contribute an additional 200,000 euros to maintain its value in the company.
Initial expansion in the United States
For the collection of samples and subsequent validation of the device, the Barcelona-based biotechnology company has the Barraquer Ophthalmology Center as scientific partners for clinical development in Europe and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, associated with Harvard Medical School, for development in the United States.
The company's market strategy involves initiating the product launch in the United States, through the subsidiary Prevista Diagnostics Inc., which will conduct the clinical trials in Boston. The forecast is that the product will be ready to obtain governmental approval and enter the US market in 2024. From the United States, expansion will proceed to Europe and Asia.
Cornea Project estimates that its product can target the market for myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism surgery as a prevention of postoperative complications due to undiagnosed keratoconus. Currently, more than six million such interventions are performed annually, with a potential market for the Barcelona-based company's device of over 500 million euros. When more biomarkers are added to detect other diseases, the market figure would rise to 5,000 million euros.