PRIMA, Science Corporation's retinal implant, is already on sale in Europe; the U.S. could have it in 2027

Important note: the original STAT article is paywalled content (STAT+), and all that could be recovered is the excerpt preceding the paywall, along with navigation material from the site. This summary is therefore deliberately brief and limited strictly to the data appearing in that excerpt, without filling gaps or assuming additional details.

What the available text does state is that the startup Science Corporation announced that European regulatory authorities approved the commercial sale of its retinal implant, called PRIMA, designed for patients with age-related macular degeneration. According to the excerpt, the device improves central vision enough to allow reading books and distinguishing traffic signs more clearly.

Science Corporation's founder and CEO, Max Hodak, is quoted as saying: 'We now have a cochlear implant for vision' (referring to the idea that the device would play a role for sight similar to the one cochlear implants play for hearing). A related headline appearing on the page also mentions that this 'cochlear implant for blindness' is debuting in Europe and could launch in the United States in 2027, though the body of the article detailing that timeline remains hidden behind the paywall.

The available material offers no further details about the implant's technical mechanism, the specific European regulatory process (for example, whether it is a CE mark or another type of authorization), the price, its geographic availability within Europe, or the status of the process before the FDA in the United States. Any clarification on those points would require access to the full article through a STAT+ subscription.