PRIMA
Science Corporation's wireless subretinal photovoltaic implant for central vision lost to geographic atrophy, the advanced form of dry age-related macular degeneration. On sale in Europe under a CE mark since July 2026, available in the UK, and pending FDA approval in the United States.
Overview
PRIMA is a wireless chip, 2 millimetres square, placed under the retina where the light-sensing photoreceptor cells have died. Camera glasses project the scene onto it in near-infrared light, and its 378 photovoltaic pixels turn that light into electrical signals that the surviving inner retina passes on to the brain. Daniel Palanker developed the approach at Stanford. The Paris company Pixium Vision ran the clinical programme until its liquidation in 2024, when Science Corporation acquired the assets and three ongoing trials.
Clinical and regulatory status
The pivotal PRIMAvera trial implanted 38 patients at 17 sites in five European countries, and its 12-month results appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. At 36 months, the 18 patients still assessed for vision read on average 29 more letters on an eye chart than before surgery, and no new safety signal appeared after month 12. The three-year data were presented at EURETINA in October 2026 and are not yet peer reviewed.
The notified body DEKRA granted a CE mark under the EU Medical Device Regulation in July 2026, covering 30 European countries. In the United States PRIMA holds Breakthrough Device designation and Humanitarian Use Device designations for advanced geographic atrophy and for Stargardt disease. Science’s first reported result outside geographic atrophy came on 13 October 2026: the first Stargardt patient in the PRIMAlia trial in Sydney read a word in his second rehabilitation session. It rests on one patient and a company video, with no acuity data.
Why it matters
PRIMA and Neuracle NEO both reached commercial supply in 2026, in Europe and China respectively. For PRIMA, the commercial test has moved to reimbursement. Price and the number of commercial implants since launch have not been disclosed, and durable benefit in older patients is the evidence payers and the FDA will weigh.
Coverage on InsideBCI
- 15 October 2026: Science Corp reports first sign PRIMA works in an inherited eye disease
- 6 October 2026: Science Corp’s PRIMA implant patients averaged a 29-letter vision gain at three years
- 22 July 2026: AMD patients are reading letters again as PRIMA lands its CE mark in Europe
- 6 March 2026: Science Corp Raises $230 Million to Commercialise PRIMA Retinal Implant