I recently read an article in which one sentence resonated with me: “The secularization thesis is refuted: a country with the world’s greatest record of high-tech innovation is also becoming the industrial world’s most religious country. It is devastating news for [John] Lennonists as well as Leninists. The ‘Imagine’ world turns out to be imaginary. Israel, as Franz Rosenzweig said of the Jewish people, is there to be ‘the paragon and exemplar of a nation.'” From the article Israel at a Point of No Return – In the Right Direction.
There is technology, not necessarily new, however rather innovative, that helps treating disease that has no practical cure.
That is where EyeYon Medical (www.eye-yon.com), located, in the High-Tech Village of Givat Ram Campus, Jerusalem comes in with an innovative idea to treat eye diseases with contact lens.
I met Nahum Ferera, an experienced business executive, now the CEO of EyeYon Medical, while he was in California, where he attended a marketing course at The Merage Institute, in Newport Beach, Southern California. (http://www.merageinstitute.org/). Nahum, a young man and a father to two toddlers, has the typical Israeli energy of a go getter. At the time we met, at his group’s graduation ceremony from the Merage Institute’s course, Nahum suggested to bring to my readers the story about the startup company he heads, founded in May 2011 by Dr. Ofer Daphna, MD, a senior ophthalmologist at Rabin Medical Center and Dr. Arie Marcovich a senior ophthalmologist at the Kaplan Medical Center and a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Upon Nahum’s return to Israel I conducted the interview for this article.
The company, operating within the Van Leer Technology Incubator, invented the most effective, non-surgical treatment for Corneal Edema, that hurts the human vision, affects approximately 2 million people in the entire world each year, and is the result of aging, cataract operation, or genetic disease.
EyeYon Medical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaIzlIkgVv0
Today, the only effective solution to corneal edema is corneal transplant. For that a person has to die and then a matching for the dead person’s cornea person, in need for a lens transplant, can be found.
EyeYon developed an effective non-surgical treatment of corneal edema. It consists of an osmotic, disposable contact lens, which needs to be replaced every two weeks, that acts as a pump and extracts fluids from the cornea. The lens also suitable for other corneal diseases discovered recently.
The lens, produced by Toplens, Nesher, Israel, passed clinical testing, successfully, at present only Israel, and received the CE (EU FDA) approval to market the lens in Europe with expectations that in a year they will obtain the FDA approval to operate in the USA as well.
Cornea transplant cost $15,000, the lens, $100.00 every two weeks.
The patient suffers from temporary or chronic corneal edema. If temporary, the body can heal itself within a certain time frame; if the situation does not change for the better, then one can use a lens without time limitation until a cornea is found for a transplant.
The company has another product, currently under research and development, which is hydrophobic implant that prevents corneal edema and will enable to avoid the need for corneal transplant all together.
One other amazing invention from amazing Israel. All those who call to boycott Israel will regret not having such treatment available to them should they continue on their vile path.
