Keeping the patient at the center is just as important in the development of high-risk innovations that serve unmet needs as it is for all other medtech solutions. That is the view of Pixium Vision CEO Khalid Ishaque, whose company is on the cusp of taking many dry-AMD sufferers out of blindness with artificial bionic vision technology. It recently performed the first successful human implantation and activation of its Prima implant.

Australia's Bionic Vision Technologies (BVT) has raised AUS$23m ($18m) from Hong Kong-based investors, China Huarong International Holdings Ltd and State Path Capital Limited, to develop and commercialize its retinal implant device. The technology could reach the market 3-5 years from now.

Medtech Insight’s new Approvals Tracker recorded 18 approvals outside the US, including five in vitro diagnostic approvals and five cardiovascular device approvals.