CED Member TearScience®,
a privately held medical device company, today announced it has signed an
exclusive distributor agreement for the Korean market with HumanPlus Tech,
Korea’s leading distributor for ophthalmic medical devices and products.
HumanPlus Tech will distribute TearScience’s system for assessing and treating
evaporative dry eye disease to eye care practices nationwide.
Some 100 million people
worldwide suffer from dry eye. Studies published in May, 2011 in the Archives of
Ophthalmology show that one in three elderly Koreans suffer from dry
eye. Dry eye is a particular problem for Korean females and those living
in urban regions.
“The
TearScience system will increase the standard of care that physicians can
provide because their new LipiFow treatment addresses the root cause of
disease, rather than focusing on symptomatic relief,” said Jerry Park, managing
director of HumanPlus. “We are pleased to introduce this system to the
local market in hopes of improving the quality of life and long term vision
health for the many who suffer from this chronic, bothersome disease.”
TearScience’s
system includes two medical devices, the LipiView® Ocular Surface Interferometer and the LipiFlow® Thermal
Pulsation System, and a handheld tool
for evaluating Meibomian gland function, called the Meibomian Gland
Evaluator.
Evaporative dry eye occurs when Meibomian glands in the eyelids become
obstructed and do not secrete the oily lipids needed to keep the water portion
of tears from evaporating too quickly. LipiView® captures,
archives, manipulates and stores detailed digital images of a dry eye patient’s
tear film while the LipiFlow® treats evaporative dry eye
disease by unblocking obstructed Meibomian glands located in the eyelids during an
in-office procedure. The goal of unblocking the glands is to allow them to
resume their natural production of lipids needed for a healthy tear film.
“The
Korean dry eye market potential is tremendous and growing,” said Doug Pinotti,
general manager of Asia Pacific and Latin America for TearScience. “HumanPlus
Tech was selected as our distributor for this market because of its
relationships with ophthalmologists, track record of success and depth of
knowledge of the eye care industry.”
TearScience
anticipates obtaining regulatory approval to sell its products in Korea during
the third quarter of 2012.
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