Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. and Nano Precision Medical, Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which privately held NPM will merge with a wholly owned subsidiary of Second Sight in an all-stock transaction. NPM will be the surviving company and owned by Second Sight. The resulting company will focus on development of innovative drug and device medical implants that treat chronic diseases with high unmet medical need.
Nano Precision Medical, leveraging its proprietary NanoPortalTM drug implant technology, is creating a portfolio of new drugs that address medication non-adherence, a leading reason for poor clinical outcomes. The NanoPortal implant system combines innovative drug development, engineering and nanotechnology that can deliver minimally fluctuating drug release profiles across a wide range of small molecules, peptides, and monoclonal antibodies. NPM’s lead program, NPM-119, is a near clinical stage GLP-1 receptor agonist which is being developed to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes for up to 6 months with a single, tiny subdermal implant. Completion of non-clinical studies to support an Investigational New Drug Application (IND), filing the IND with the Food and Drug Administration and initiation of the First-in-Human clinical study, also known as the LIBERATE-1 trial, are anticipated by late 2022. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be under the leadership of NPM’s co-founder, CEO and Chairman, Adam Mendelsohn, Ph.D.
According to Second Sight Chairman of the Board Gregg Williams, “The merger with NPM aligns with our expanded vision to become a top device and drug implant company, allows us immediate access to NPM’s experienced executive leadership team, and provides the two companies with a myriad of opportunities to leverage potential synergies.” NPM’s Dr. Adam Mendelsohn added, “At NPM we are very excited about the proposed merger with Second Sight, which will enable NPM to accelerate development activities for its internal pipeline and also engage with Second Sight in the continued exploration of their visual prosthesis business opportunity.”
In addition to advancing NPM’s drug implant portfolio, the company will continue to explore opportunities intended to create artificial forms of useful vision for the profoundly blind. Second Sight is currently developing the Orion® Visual Cortical Prosthesis System, an investigational device intended to bring artificial vision to individuals who are blind due to a wide range of causes, including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, optic nerve injury or disease, or forms of cancer and trauma. Orion is currently being studied in an early feasibility study at UCLA and Baylor College of Medicine. Second Sight’s legacy product, the Argus® II, was approved by the FDA for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa and was the world’s first FDA and CE Mark approved device that provides artificial vision to individuals with bare to no light perception. Since the Orion bypasses the optic nerve and directly stimulates the visual cortex of the brain, it has the potential to treat a much larger patient population than that associated with the Argus II.
Prior to the merger, Second Sight is providing NPM with $8 million for working capital and to enable acceleration of pipeline programs. The Boards of both companies voted to support the proposed merger agreement. If the proposed merger is consummated, Second Sight shareholders will join NPM shareholders, including AstraZeneca which has been a strategic investor in NPM since 2016. The parties anticipate completion of the merger in 2Q/3Q 2022.
ThinkEquity is serving as financial advisor to Second Sight in connection with the merger. In addition, the law firms of Venable and Golenbock are providing legal support for Second Sight and NPM, respectively.
About Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. develops implantable visual prosthetics that are intended to deliver useful artificial vision to blind individuals. A recognized global leader in neuromodulation devices for blindness, the Company is committed to developing new technologies to treat the broadest population of sight-impaired individuals.
About Nano Precision Medical Products, Inc.
Nano Precision Medical. Inc is a privately held biopharmaceutical company developing drug implants by leveraging the company’s proprietary NanoPortal drug implant technology. These drug implants, designed to deliver minimally fluctuating drug profiles, will address drug non-adherence which is one of the top reasons for sub-optimal clinical benefit associated with oral and injectable products that treat chronic disease. The company’s lead product, NPM-119, is a GLP-1 receptor agonist under development to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes. The Company’s headquarters are in Emeryville, California.
