TearScience Pivots to Focus on Early-Stage OSD

TearScience, the device company focused on the role of the meibomian glands in dry eye, has pivoted its business model to concentrate more on early-stage meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) with the LipiFlow thermal pulsation device and high-definition imaging of the meibomian glands, President and CEO Joseph Boorady, OD, told OIS@ASCRS 2016.

Dr. Boorady himself is part of last year’s management makeover at TearScience, brought in after he’d served as vice president of sales, service, and marketing for the US at Carl Zeiss Meditec. TearScience builds on technology developed by optometrist and founder Donald Korb to treat the meibomian glands.

TearScience is constructed around the FDA-approved LipiFlow device that uses thermal pulsation to remove blockages that cause deterioration of the meibomian glands and loss of the critical lipid layer of the tear film; and the LipiView II diagnostic device that evaluates lipid layer thickness, blink frequency and qualityand performs what Dr. Boorady called “high-definition meibography – sort of like an MRI of the meibomian glands.” So far 100,000 patients have been treated with LipiFlow and TearScience expects that number to nearly double this year, he said.

Reflecting its heightened focus on early-stage disease, TearScienceat ASCRS introduced LipiScan, a device that puts meibomian gland imaging in an intuitive and affordable platform, with images in 10 seconds to make screening for meibomian gland disease in all patients a reality, Dr. Boorady said. LipiScan uses patented Dynamic Meibomian Imaging (DMI) technology to produce high-definition images of the meibomian glands.

TearScience has sustained steady growth through the last five quarters, and at the beginning of April the company completed a round of Series D financing in an undisclosed amount, Dr. Boorady said.

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