For the millions of Americans who suffer from symptoms of chronic ocular surface disease, traditional treatments typically provide only temporary relief for patients, primarily because they don’t tackle the corneal damage that may be causing the symptoms. At BioTissue, we strive to continually research and develop groundbreaking regenerative medicine treatments to help these patients and improve their quality of life.
Our innovative Prokera® products are the only FDA-cleared therapeutic medical devices that reduce inflammation and promote healing in order to rejuvenate and heal the cornea, which is essential for patients to find true relief. Prokera is clinically proven and has helped more than 50,000 patients worldwide.
Through extensive research and feedback from our valued customers, we identified the need for a new version of the product that allows patients to maintain vision during the treatment period. This new addition is Prokera Clear, which heals the cornea and maintains visual acuity with the central Clear-View™ Aperture. It allows clear vision through the pupil, but still covers the limbus and peripheral cornea, a critical origin point for corneal healing. Prokera Clear is ideal for certain patients that require functional vision during treatment such as patients that need to return to work or those with only one eye. It’s effective for ambulatory, chronic ocular surface disease, corneal-involved dry eye patients, and post-LASIK/PRK patients.
In the fall of last year we conducted an early experience program to determine the clinical efficacy of Prokera Clear with improved visual acuity. Physicians were asked to compare Prokera Clear to Prokera Slim to test whether or not patients had an improved experience wearing the product and if successful clinical outcomes were still achieved. The new Prokera Clear obtained positive feedback, notably improved patient satisfaction and equivalent efficacy, and physicians agreed on the importance for patients to have visual acuity during treatment. Although this feedback is from early experiences, the results of the program indicate the clinical efficacy of Prokera Clear seems to be similar to other Prokera versions.
Our goal is to continue to provide innovative treatments that meet the needs of patients, improve clinical outcomes, and help patients to have a better quality of life. We look forward to more widespread use of Prokera Clear and continued feedback from our valued customers.
David Tseng is a Marketing Manager at BioTissue where he is responsible for product management of the Prokera product lines. He has over 5 years of healthcare marketing experience and is a graduate of the USC Marshall School of Business.
