Bio-Convergence - The Future of Vision Tech | LSI Asia ‘25

Assaf Barnea  0:05  
All right, good morning, everyone. So bioconvergence and ophthalmology. This is in I've been hearing that not too many people are aware of bioconvergence. I will give truly a five minutes outlook as to what do we mean by bioconvergence, and then obviously combine it to ophthalmology. So if you look into, sorry, if you look into various ways to think of bio convergence, it's actually the biology that's the right. If you see into the graph, can you see the slides? You guys can put it on.

Enrique Vega  0:47  
No, they are good. They are good. Not here,

Assaf Barnea  0:48  
right? You can see beautiful. So on the right we're talking about biology, typical biology, the historical biology, and on the left, it's everything that we basically do in terms of engineering, anything that has to do with data in the combination of biology and engineering, this is actually creating the convergence of bioconvergence. It is a multidisciplinary approach to treat not just ophthalmology issues, but rather anything even outside of the healthcare industry. When we look into, you know, basically various applications within healthcare. You can talk about drug delivery, nanorobotics for drug delivery, anything that has to do with regenerative medicine, the diagnostic eventually, you may be seeing a diagnostic tool, but the core technology within that will be composed out of a bioconvergence technology, optogenetics, of course, Bioelectronics and any engineering materials and material science, all of which are converging, you know, physics, chemistry converging into biology. That convergence will be resulted in a bioconvergence way. In terms of market size, it is estimated to be, this last year, 140 $4 billion and about to grow to 2000 and in 2030 to $215 billion markets. And the growth has been driven by the integration of biology into AI, into engineering and into the nanotechnology space regions in the various regions that we are talking about, Europe is the largest, including, by the way, Israel has been included in that where we come from, about 30% of the bioconvergence market. At the moment it is related to to the European market. North America, we should see a growth almost doubling it from 38 to $59 million in 2030 in Asia, Pacific Singapore included, of course, rapid growth, both in China and Japan, as well as elsewhere. The key segments within bioconvergence that we're looking into, and I'm talking about the key ones, because it's obviously touches many, many aspects, drug discovery and development, which is the largest segment, regenerative medicine, cells and 3d printing, nano robotics, of course, Bioelectronics and diagnostic and biological sensors. One can imagine, you know, the amounts of capacity and use cases that could be translated out of those technologies, amazing technologies. Just to give you an illustration of how it has started, part of the Israeli innovation authority definition, and obviously elsewhere. But the way we look at it in the Israeli market, it was identified actually as a national strategic priority, parallel to digital health. This has taken place some years ago and supported by the Israeli innovation authority, actually for those companies within the Israeli market, who have been defined as bioconvergence. They do get additional funding from the Israeli government in order to push and advance faster the market entry. So the trajectory rapid startups growth and global collaboration the Israeli healthcare bioconvergence market is currently estimated to be about a billion dollar and looking to grow into $1.6 billion in 2030 and the drug discovery, obviously, nano robotic and precision medicine are the top key segments Now diving into ophthalmology, there are few segments within ophthalmology and bioconvergence that We can look into CorNeat, which elmog will be talking about, the CEO of CorNeat, precise bio. Those are easily examples, but all of which represents and illustrates. What do we mean by bioconvergence, and there are a few other companies. So one, regenerative medicine, another vertical, another sector is the interocular drug delivery system, companies such as ion and live care and various other companies. And the last vertical within that would be the cutting edge technology such as nano retina and nano drops, whereby Dalia is actually one of the panel members, and she will be talking about it. So with that introduction, I'm. Now moving to the panel itself. Thank you. So my colleagues and partners for this panel, why don't we go and each one will give a short intro about himself or herself and what you guys do in each of those companies. Nina, please.

Qizhi Linna Fu  5:18  
Hi everyone. I'm Lina Fu, my background is ophthalmologist, eye doctor myself. 19 years ago, I've decided to join star surgical the only reason I did that because the appealing technology. It called ICL. I sell stand for implantable contact lens. It's kind of lens into your eye to correct a vision, just unlike the lace etc, it's cater cornea and change the lights and correct vision. So as a doctor, as a medical director in a hospital, I have seen so many high myopia patients want to seeking the visual freedom, get rid of glasses, change their life, but cannot be treated by LASIK just because that so I say, Oh, this technology is Very interesting, but that time the lens technology was has a lot of suspection because the long term safety. So we start. I started from there, and now, um, 19 years later, our company, Star surgical, which is us, and the Swiss based company decided it's like we are get rid of another product. I still become the only product our for our company, and we have already created this lens based technology for the reflective and the China represent 60% of the global business, and Asia represent about 85% of the business. And Europe is about 815, and the US about five. So I would say we have come a long way to change our very niche market innovation product to our to the main stage, to compete directly with LASIK to cup, to come the main street of reflective surgery technology

Assaf Barnea  7:36  
and Lina, you would be the corporate, representing the corporate, Being a company of about 1000 people, right? So in this panel, as opposed to the others who come up with a startup notion, you will be so called representing the corporate side, and how you got to become a so called the corporate Yes, Almog cornet,

Almog Aley-Raz  7:54  
please. Yes. The way, I'm currently managing cornet vision, and I'm also the VP R and D, previous to cornet, actually manage a high tech startup from inception to an exit and grew $100 million business. So coming into the med tech space, I bring the experience of how high tech company works, bringing a lot of technology into the into this space. So cornet vision started eight years ago as an artificial cornea company. Our device enables corneally blind patients to completely rehabilitate their vision without the need for donor tissue. And if you look at the challenges in terms of making something like that happen, it all evolved around the ability to permanently integrate synthetic materials, a lens to resident ocular tissue, a living tissue, and that was not feasible before. Our core technology is actually this material technologies that, when implanted, trigger cells to proliferate and embed the device within the surrounding tissue and avoid the foreign body response. And that technology have a lot of application in ophthalmology and beyond. And today, we actually have three products in ophthalmology, an IP that extends to other areas of surgery, to enable this technology to bring about new solutions to other fields.

Assaf Barnea  9:11  
Cool, thank you, Daria, please.

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  9:13  
Hi. I'm Daria Lemann-Blumenthal. I'm the CEO of Nanodrops. I joined the company after exiting to Alcon with my previous company, Belkin vision. I led Belkin, Belkin vision for 11 years, so I know a bit about the journey of a startup, from inception to acquisition at nanodrops, we are doing an amazing this is an amazing concept, new concept for vision correction. We are not reshaping the cornea. We are not changing the structure of the cornea. We are doing micro imprinting on the EPI. Volume, the surface of the cornea, using nanoparticles to maintain the pattern that actually mimics the glasses the prescription of the patient. And the beautiful advantage and value proposition is the fact that our procedure is adjustable. It can be repeated, and it is reversible, something that does not exist so far, our first entry to market would be with presbyopia indication, but we also correct myopia down the pipeline. Thanks.

Assaf Barnea  10:40  
Thank you, Enrique, please.

Enrique Vega  10:42  
Yes good morning. Thank you for the invitation. So I'm Enrique Vega. I'm a Spanish origin. I've been in medical devices since the very beginning, and the last five years in ophthalmology. I'm co founder and CEO of azalea vision. We are developing what it will become the first smart contact lens, or lens embedded system we are capable of introducing inside contact lens nanoelectronics, which are as thin as a third of a human hair. So we are talking about 30 microns. These microelectronics are so thin that they are flexible. They can be thermoform to the shape of the contact lens. They can be also at the same time, if you want, even transparent, because they are so so thin. They are powered by an internal battery. We have also an ASIC. These components are, let's say, one square millimeter, so really minimalistic, and we are able to introduce many functions inside the contact lens with this platform, if you want. We are starting by putting inside a diaphragm created by liquid crystal. We can activate rings of different sizes, which means that we can extend the depth of field and treat patients with presbyopia through a pin hole, we can filter out aberrated light and treat patients with corneal aberrations, or we can also put the device in an autonomous way and treat patients with light sensitivity sensitivity or photo phobia. That's just the beginning of the first technological platform, and we are aiming to move forward to biosensors and digital therapies.

Assaf Barnea  12:24  
Cool Lina, as one who introduced ICL technology to the Chinese market, you have gone through the entire process of building up a company, and basically, I would say, choosing the right partners in each step of the way. You know, having been a startup and then building up, so called the corporate what would be your insights and recommendation as to the various stages? How do you define search and define the right partners, and how you eventually choose those to become a successful company?

Qizhi Linna Fu  12:55  
First of all, I think as a company, you have to have a clear thought, what's your step one? So I think for the for the new product, or for target, is not very competitive. It's a new area. You have to know that you get into the Kol first. Which market you want to get is not the the agency is not the distributor. You have to get the KL compelling. So as myself, I'm already know that the China need the super high myopia as an entry point. So we start working with the Kol actually, at the beginning, the distributor don't want to work with us, because they don't think that's the future. So we are just very simple way we work with the KOLs, connect the datas, and then Kol,

Assaf Barnea  13:45  
who are advisor doctors, advisor to the government. Kol,

Qizhi Linna Fu  13:49  
no, no, no, actually, this is it, just it, because this is a cash pay is not really related on the government policy, get in reimbursement. It's just simply get those patient and it gets very good patient satisfaction. So I mean, the doctors really have the daily contact with with them, and then get to get the data and decide what's the step, and then we get a the super high LBR data, good. We have to decide if this will goes to reimbursement or to stay in the cash pay. So because the good data, we say this is so good for the old range of the corrections, we stay in the cash pay and that time, and then we will leading the distributor, the district distributor and the doctor, mostly they just want to do easy job, right? So the distributor just need to focus and we train them. So I think the four, four processes as a companies, as ourselves, we need to have a very clear strategy. What is step 1234?

Assaf Barnea  14:59  
Yeah. Moving to you, Almog, you know, you just mentioned that there are various use cases with your core technology. So was it a stage of hesitation, initially, of which one to choose? Or you had from day one the right first killer app, if you will, and then you have taken it further to the other use cases, because there's always a question of whether you're defocusing yourself and showing a potential to the you know, to your investors and LPs, or you want to start with a very clear use case that you believe in

Almog Aley-Raz  15:31  
the way, originally, we were one product wonder company. We had this artificial cornea. Everything was simple, the path to market, the regulatory process, but as we were through the pre clinical trial, and one of the KOLs that was involved in that it was exposed to the amazing results of this tissue integrating technology, then came the ask, Hey, can I get a little piece of this skirt and use it instead of tissue in ocular surface surgery? And we looked at it and said, Well, there's almost no R D here. And going to market with something like that will bring us with early revenues. Will allow us to actually learn and even do mistakes without risking our main product, regulatory, reimbursement, distribution. This little product, although it doesn't have a love a huge market, allows the company to kind of mature in advance of introduced the introduction of its main product. So that's how we diverted from one product company to ophthalmic implants company, and we take it that step further. And now with the glaucoma solution, we actually have three products. But if you manage a startup company that develop a high risk implant. You probably know that every step of your way you need different type of people. Originally, you need the innovators, the entrepreneurs, right, the physician. Then you need the biologists to do the biocompatibility and the pre clinical testing, and then you move to the clinical and then you need to do manufacturing. So how do you keep your team if you need different people different time? This is not a software company, and actually, by having several products in different stages, you allow yourself to continuously build value and grow a robust team that can take a product based on your core technology through the process and all the way to the market. So if you want to build something big, if you want to extract the value of this platform technology, you cannot just stay with the platform and have others develop it. But rather, it works like a train build the value continuously.

Assaf Barnea  17:35  
Beautiful Daria, I think that Nanodrop stands for truly the definition of bio convergence. You have the laser which represents so called the physics. You have the drops which represent the biology, and altogether, you have the bioconvergence, which we are talking about. What can you please elaborate? What is so unique about this concept that actually represents something that could solve other problems that maybe other technology were unable to solve.

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  18:04  
So if you want to treat, if you want to do vision correction, but you don't want to do you don't want permanent change or something that is irreversible, you have to treat only the epithelium, and the epithelium recovers. So those here who understand something about biology understand that if we do etching on the epithelium, how do we maintain the pattern? And the way to maintain this pattern is with nanoparticles. So this is, again, the perfect mixture of laser, optics, nanoparticles, technology you have your also software, the laser itself. And I do want to mention that the there is a beautiful mixture with the business model, which is amazing because you have a repeatable procedure. You you give the patients options, you give the patients access to choice. They can choose between a biodegradable nanoparticles, which means that they can repeat, they have a preview treatment of what it's going to be, and they can adjust their vision needs. Or they can choose a permanent a treatment that is reversible by choosing an alternative nanoparticles that are metal based. So you have here a very nice choice. You have a very good business model, and you have bioconvergence with the technology itself,

Assaf Barnea  19:55  
and a little bit above the business model. The uniqueness of the business model is. It's always like, you know, when we talk about technologies as investors, some of those entrepreneurs come to us and say, This is an amazing technology. And to some extent, we do get excited, you know, we see that this is could be a very destructive one. Nonetheless, it's always the end of the day the business model, the business model, can you share with us your business model a little bit?

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  20:19  
So basically, we have two paths here. One is you can use the current refractive lasers, the excimer laser, with nanodrops technology, so you don't have to acquire, again, expensive equipment. But you have recurring you have the procedural pack, which actually contains the pattern itself. And the laser does scanning and create the pattern on the epithelium, on the cornea. And you have the nano particles of vials themselves, so you have a very straightforward recurring revenue business model.

Assaf Barnea  21:02  
And Enrique, you've been pushing, you know, a very disruptive technology as well, and as one that you know stands within the European markets, and possibly seeing, you know, the way, or envisioning how the way people will see in the future. There's been so many discussions about the human machine, human interfaces, and ophthalmology gets within that, or you see that this is a bit far away to be integrated to those technologies. 

Enrique Vega  21:31  
Yeah. I mean, it's there. Is true that there is a lot of hype. And when we talk about a smart lenses, we always think about AR VR, or having our Netflix account in the in the eyes. This is not going to come very soon. With the approach we are having is an approach which is building the baseline first and starting by a medical application that makes sense. The main thing that we are doing is that we are moving from a passive by definition, a contact lens is passive. We are moving to an intelligent system that is first having a function for a group of patients that have a need. We are capable to adapt the vision. So we are moving from passive to an intelligent system so that we can accommodate for the patient depending on different parameters, as an example, we can accommodate the treatment depending on the amount of light. Here, with this big light, our device will adapt and have the capacity to diminish and filter out the light. This is for the first application, but at the same time, the device is connected. So we are connecting. We have an NFC antenna, and we are connecting with our smartphone, so we will be able to interact the device with a smartphone, either for the patient to decide how to use it or or for the physician, the optometrist, to program the device in an in an easy way. So the wearable concept and the wireless communication will will put us, but always with a focus on medical devices. And of course, we will start with concrete applications like corneal irregularities, because we can filter out the aberrations. But we can move to presbyopia really easily with a pin hole effect extending the depth of field. We can manage sensitivity of the light for different patients, and that's only with the first platform. And moving forward, we can add bio sensing, and we can add, eventually, drug delivery, which will then close the loop for issues like glaucoma, or we can talk about a dry eye. So there is a lot of things that will happen. Will we not reach in the next five years to an AR VR, where we see anything on the device, it will come, but it will take a certain time.

Assaf Barnea  23:47  
And do you see bioconvergence? Then again, bioconvergence becoming a mainstream or still, within five to 10 years, still remain, you know, a niche market, maybe with some very successful companies, those who were able to go through the ups and downs of regulations and market access and so forth. But do you see it becoming a mainstream?

Enrique Vega  24:06  
I don't know if it is a mainstream. I mean, depends on where you put the bar and how you measure that. I believe they are. There is value on particular applications for people that have a need, an unmet need, they are patients that see badly. They are considered low vision, patients legally blind that can have some of the applications that we are discussing here, and particularly applications related with light. So I am sure we will have applications that will solve patients now, if we call this mainstream or not, that is something which we can discuss.

Assaf Barnea  24:44  
So we still have five minutes. I want to touch different aspects, not so much the technology itself, not so much the ophthalmology itself, but rather the market. You know, the capital point of view, exits and adaptation of those technologies are being embraced. Being able to embrace those technologies within various corporates. So each one of you please kind of an indication of how you foresee your exit path or market players in China. Let it be, in your case, Dina, that might potentially will acquire companies. Let it be bioconvergence, or let it be others, Morgan, Daria and Henry as well. How you for see exit path, not necessarily your company, if you want to, but let it be so or others becoming and maturing into becoming a validated, acceptable technologies in the marketplace. Lina, please.

Qizhi Linna Fu  25:31  
So I just want to say, engineer, they have many crazy thoughts that if you want to have an innovation product, you have to think that what is the key point you are differentiate with any others and start it from there and grow from there and make your business meaningful for your partner, and then they will grow from there,

Assaf Barnea  25:57  
differentiation both to the technology as well as through the business model, right?

Qizhi Linna Fu  26:01  
Yeah, you cannot do everything. Just do one thing, good,

Assaf Barnea  26:05  
okay? Almog,

Almog Aley-Raz  26:07  
so the unique value proposition of our material technology actually established a situation where we can, depending on funding, continuously generate value for our investors with this three ophthalmic product portfolio and a first project outside of thomology, we're on a path to build something that can certainly go IPO, because we are dealing with the critical needs, a totally new technology that can embed additional technologies into it, and every surgeon we meet come with a few more applications for it. So as time goes by and as we analyze the situation, there is an IPO path that is opening, opening for us, whereas as a single product company, it was all about exiting to a strategic find it the right way, and doing like the classic way. 

Assaf Barnea  26:55  
It's a good point. Thank you, Daria, please.

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  26:58  
So you know today when young entrepreneurs ask me, what do they have to think about when they establish a new company, I always tell them to look from top to bottom. So first you have to identify the market. Some people, most people, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, they are sure they have the best technology, and they start to develop the technology without thinking about who is going to pay for the technology, who is going to buy the technology. Is there a need in the market? And my opinion is that this is the first question that has to be asked when you look on new companies. And when I look, for example, on nanodrops, I'm thinking, Okay, this is out of pocket product treatment, and will there be a need? And of course, first of all, I'm asking the doctors refractive centers that people that have to pay for this, I need to understand there is someone who is willing to pay. Now at Belkin vision, I must say, we never looked at exit as a purpose. You look on an exit as a mean to bring your technology to as many patients as possible, because you as a startup, it's very hard to approach all the doctors, if it's a B to B, of course, or the customers, if you are a B to C or B to B to C, and an exit allows you to bring your technology to as many doctors and patients as possible. So it's a mean, it's not a purpose for young startups or any startup. Of course, the holy grail is to be acquired by one of the big strategic players, which allows you to deploy the

Assaf Barnea  29:08  
Enrique, please. And then my last question to each one of you, very quickly.

Enrique Vega  29:12  
I think that when you are doing a smart lens, you realize that to do one smart lens, 90% is common to any smart lens. So you are building really a platform. So our exit, the way we see it, is that, of course, we need to create one application, but we need to join, or emanate with a group that really wants to provide a set of solutions on a smart lens, because the efforts are there for one. So you need to leverage all the things that have been done to be sure that then you develop a pipeline of application. So I think a big corporation that really wants to address many solutions at the same time will be the right partner to go

Assaf Barnea  29:53  
in my last we've been talking about, you know, entrepreneurship. We're talking about technologies. We've been talking about a little bit about the capital. At an exit. My last question is about, you know, blind people, blind people, eventually, we've been seeing degenerative diseases and others, when, through bioconvergence was not when is your estimation that in various segments, in different diseases, when blind people will be able to see again? Each one of you please an optimistic approach, if you will. 

Enrique Vega  30:23  
If I, if I may, just start, there are some now, some applications, kind of BCI applications, that they're already implanting sensors in the brain. I believe that we are closer than what we could thought. Maybe it might take five to 10 years, but we are going to see this in our professional lives sooner than than what we believe or what is believed in general, we will see people will see they have been second side and pixium. It's very difficult. It will happen. 

Assaf Barnea  30:54  
Daria,

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  30:55  
you know, in at Belkin vision, my previous company, we treated glaucoma, which is a blinding disease, and everyone is looking for the perfect solution, gene therapy. And you know, how do you treat nerves? So I hope it happened. It will happen, but I don't think anyone knows when. 

Assaf Barnea  31:19  
Almog, please.

Almog Aley-Raz  31:22  
So we are actually doing this these days. Our artificial cornea is in clinical trials. Some of our patients hadn't seen for 1020 years. We had patient that hadn't seen their grandchild here, and even a patient in France never saw his daughter, and he's seeing six over 45 actually better than normal vision. It will probably take five to 10 years to expand and scale this business. But as far as corneal blindness, I think that the at least in the areas that have access to treatment, we would see less and less of that. Our glaucoma shant, which is implanted in glaucoma dogs, has been proven to stop the progression of severe glaucoma pressure went down from 50 to the teens, and within 15 minutes of surgery, we've been able to stop this devastating, blinding disease. So I think that for glaucoma and cornea, we have something that is just around the corner. But for retina, I think there is a long way ahead of us,

Assaf Barnea  32:18  
Linna, 

Qizhi Linna Fu  32:18  
yeah, I think, as the doctor, I think this is not a simple answer. When you alone, living long enough, or environment changing enough, there's always new reason or new cost to the blend list. Of course, the scientists will come a new way. So I will just say new challenging, new opportunity. There's always some new things you have been working on,

Assaf Barnea  32:43  
boom, so we can see the future, whereby people will see hopefully. I hope that will be our final statement. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank you so much. My panel colleagues and the audience. Thank you again. 

Almog Aley-Raz  32:54  
Thank you. 

Daria Lemann-Blumenthal  32:55  
Thank you.