LOS ANGELES—Second Sight Medical Products (NASDAQ: EYES), a leading developer of implantable visual prosthetics, announced Wednesday the completion of its merger with Nano Precision Medical (NPM). NPM is a biopharmaceutical business which develops miniaturized, subdermal drug implants utilizing its proprietary NanoPortal technology to enable long-term, near constant-rate delivery of a broad range of medicines to treat chronic diseases. In connection with the merger, Second Sight changed its name to Vivani Medical. The company’s common stock will trade on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol “VANI”.

ThinkEquity acted as the financial advisor to Second Sight in connection with the merger.
 
Upon completion of the merger, Vivani Medical has approximately $55 million in cash to advance the development of its portfolio, which includes lead asset NPM-119 (exenatide implant), into clinical-stage development for the treatment of patients with Type 2 diabetes and to identify and execute strategic options to advance its clinical-stage Orion visual prosthetic device to treat individuals with blindness due to a wide range of underlying causes.
 
Vivani Medical will operate under the leadership of NPM’s CEO, Dr. Adam Mendelsohn, and his leadership team of seasoned industry veterans.
 
Vivani CEO Adam Mendelsohn, Ph.D., said, “The completion of the merger marks a significant milestone for Vivani as we continue to grow the company with a strong team, sufficient funding, and an attractive group of investors who support our pursuit to develop and commercialize a new portfolio of miniaturized drug implants which can effectively address medication non-adherence, a major challenge in the treatment of chronic disease, including Type II diabetes. We are also committed to identifying a sustainable path forward to bring Second Sight’s Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes.
 
“Our proprietary NanoPortal technology has broad potential across a wide range of therapeutic molecules. We anticipate that the first application of our technology will be ready to begin evaluation in humans around the end of this year with NPM-119.
 
"Medication non-adherence for Type II diabetes patients taking oral or injectable therapies is approximately 50 percent. We believe a six-month implant can provide an important alternative for non-adherent patients and the physicians who treat them, ” Mendelsohn said.