CARLTON, Victoria, Australia—Bionic Vision Technologies Pty Ltd. (BVT), an Australian medical device company working on retinal devices, reports that Ash Attia joined the company as its chief executive officer. The appointment rounds out the executive team at BVT, an announcement said, with the recent arrivals of both Brian Gordon as chief scientific officer and Dr. Adrian Oates as chief operating officer. With progress being achieved in its current clinical trial, the company said it is increasingly focused on planning for future pivotal trials, regulatory approval and commercial release of its bionic eye technology.

Attia has over 30 years of senior executive management experience in implantable devices and biotechnology. Most recently, he held the position of vice president Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Israel, at TransMedics Inc. Prior to that, Ash held vice president and managing director roles within several other major Australian and International medtech organizations such as Thoratec, St. Jude Medical, Micromed, Syncardia, Ventracor, Biotronik, SulzerMedica and Telectronics.

Attia has extensive experience in medical technology commercialization, general management, research and development, marketing, market entry strategies, regulatory and reimbursement across multiple geographies (U.S., Asia Pacific and Europe), the company noted. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has extensive governance experience being a non-executive director of ASX-listed DorsaVi for over 10 years.

Bionic Vision Technologies Pty Ltd (BVT) is developing a range of best in class technologies to address degenerative retinal conditions. BVT is commercializing the technologies developed by Bionic Vision Australia (BVA), a consortium of leading universities and research institutes funded by the Australian Research Council.

In April 2017, BVT received $18 million from Hong Kong-based State Path Capital and China Huarong International Holdings. The funds enabled BVT to accelerate development and clinical studies. Consortium members collaborating on the trial include the Bionics Institute, Centre for Eye Research Australia, CSIRO’s Data 61, the University of Melbourne, and The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. BVT will seek further capital to complete regulatory trials and technology development.

BVT developed bionic eye consists of implanted and body worn components. The patient wears glasses with a small video camera mounted on the side. The live feed from the camera is processed and transmitted via an implanted microchip to an electrode array placed in a naturally occurring pocket behind the retina, called the suprachoroidal space. The electrodes stimulate remaining cells in the retina, to generate spots of light that give a patient a sense of vision.