LumiThera, a Poulsbo, Wash.-based medical device company that has developed technology to treat degenerative eye disease, has been acquired by Alcon, a global eye care company.
LumiThera’s key innovation is a device for use by ophthalmologists that improves vision and slows its loss, with a focus on patients with dry age-related macular degeneration. That core product, called the Valeda Light Delivery System, uses an approach called photobiomodulation (PBM) that stimulates cells with LED lights.
After its LIGHTSITE I, II, and III clinical trials, PBM received FDA de novo market authorization in November 2024. PBM is currently available in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Singapore.
President and CEO Clark Tedford has led LumiThera since he co-founded it in 2013.
“Our PBM device provides a non-invasive treatment for dry AMD patients that can improve vision and address the disease earlier, before permanent vision loss,” Tedford said in statement. “We are thrilled that Alcon agrees in the potential that this device has to change the lives of millions living with dry AMD, and we are confident that Alcon has the capabilities to broadly commercialize it.”
LumiThera raised $14 million in a Series C round in July 2020.
Terms of the acquisition were not released. The acquisition did not include LumiThera’s diagnostic devices AdaptDx and Nova/Diopsys, according to a news release in July.
