With 'bionic eye' booming, Second Sight is on analysts' radar

Second Sight Medical Products Inc. designs, makes and sells the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, which gives sight to the blind. And sales of the "bionic eye" are on the rise.

Argus II is a prosthetic retina for people with a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. The device looks like futuristic sunglasses paired with a small box, which contains the brains of the device a video processing unit.

A miniature video camera captures an image and then transmits that image to the video processing unit, which then sends it to electrodes implanted in a patient's retina using a surgical procedure.

Argus II does not restore normal vision. But it does allow the wearer to see light and shapes, sometimes for the first time in decades.

More than 100 patients have received the Argus II, with 15 systems implanted during the last three months of 2014, the most of any quarter. The earliest recipients have had the implants for nearly eight years.

Second Sight has received regulatory approvals to offer the device in the U.S., Canada and the European Union. Patients have received the device in the U.S. and 10 other countries.

Company executives think the device has a potential market of more than 8 million people, including 375,000 with retinitis pigmentosa and 2 million with age-related macular degeneration.

The company said its products are so far ahead of rivals in regulatory approval and patent protections that competitors will have a difficult time playing catch-up.

"We have solved several very difficult technical problems," Chief Executive Robert Greenberg said Wednesday in a conference call with analysts.

"The patents surrounding these solutions coupled with the difficulty of the solutions provide a significant barrier to entry and, in our opinion, at least a five-year lead over our closest competitors," Greenberg said.

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With 'bionic eye' booming, Second Sight is on analysts' radar