Second Sight Gets New Grant for Study

Sylmar-based Second Sight Medical Products, an implantable visual prosthetics developer, announced Wednesday that it received a $155,964 grant supplement from the National Institutes of Health.Second Sight’s main product helps certain blind people regain some sight. The grant will fund a study to evaluate how blind people weigh the risks and benefits of using a visual neuroprostheses. The study will allow Second Sight to understand the acceptable risks, benefits and appropriate risk/benefit balance for visual prostheses from the perspective of those who would be eligible to receive them.The grant will be provided to UCLA as it assumes a subcontractor role to conduct the study.The money is related to a $6.4 million planned five-year grant from the NIH. The five-year grant provides funds for the early feasibility clinical trial of a visual cortical prosthesis; $1.4 million of the grant was released in May.The funding will continue to support research and testing of Second Sight’s Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis.Shares of Second Sight (EYES) closed down three cents, or a fraction of a percent, to $3.78 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, a day when that market likewise was down a fraction of a percent.