Samsara Vision and Medevise Consulting Announce European Partnership

Far Hills, NJ – (March 9, 2021) – Samsara Vision, a company focused on bringing vision and freedom back to late-stage, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients through advanced visual prosthetic devices, announced it will partner with Medevise Consulting, a European-based commercial and clinically focused ophthalmology company, to build a dedicated commercial organization to support Samsara Vision’s Tsert SI Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) (by Isaac Lipshitz). The two companies will collaborate to advance clinical research, coordinate reimbursement, and drive sales, marketing, and customer relationships.

“Now is the right time to expand our footprint in the Europe and we are thrilled to partner with Medevise, given their comprehensive experience and expertise in ophthalmology,” said Tom Ruggia, Chief Executive Officer of Samsara Vision. “Our work with Medevise will accelerate our launch of the Tsert SI IMT to providers and their patients and help people recapture the freedom they have lost to Late-Stage AMD.”

In May 2020, Samsara Vision announced that receipt of a Conformité Européene (CE) Mark for the next generation IMT. This product includes foldable haptics that allow the IMT to fit into the injector and be delivered through a smaller incision, but device has the identical optical elements of the currently available IMT (magnification of 2.7x). Therefore, the next generation IMT eases the surgical procedure, thereby reducing the risk for patient trauma while halving the surgery time (to about 25 minutes in normal cases).

“We’re excited to partner with Samsara Vision to introduce the next generation IMT to our provider community,” said Jérôme Marzinski, Chief Commercial Officer at Medevise, which is headquartered in Strasbourg, France. “Bringing new breakthrough, game-changing technologies in the European ophthalmic space is our mantra at Medevise. We are thrilled and excited to launch the Tsert SI IMT platform into key first-served European markets including Germany, France, Spain. This technology will dramatically improve late-stage AMD patients’ lives. We are confident that with our market intelligence and our close relationship with leading KOLs, this launch will be successful.”

About Late-Stage AMD
More than 15 million Americans are affected by some form of macular degeneration and approximately 2 million Americans have advanced forms of AMD with associated vision loss. The number of Americans afflicted with macular degeneration is expected to double with the rapid aging of the U.S. population. Late-stage AMD results in a loss of central or “straight-ahead” vision, creating a blind spot that is uncorrectable by glasses, drugs, injections or cataract surgery. This blind spot makes it difficult or impossible for patients to see faces, read, and perform everyday activities such as watching TV, preparing meals, and self-care. End-Stage AMD is the leading cause of blindness in older Americans.

About Medevise Consulting
A new name in the industry, Medevise Consulting brings together a veteran team that embodies ophthalmology in Europe. From an Executive Board of Directors co-chaired by Jan Bonel and Michael Mrochen to Chief Commercial Officer Jérôme Marzinski and service leaders with deep ophthalmology knowledge, Medevise Consulting represents a new approach that marries Passion, Experience and Diligence to every project.

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Our Vision: To be the partner of choice for medical device innovators in ophthalmology.
Our Mission: To put the best medical device innovation into the hands of ophthalmologists across Europe to improve patient experience and outcomes.
Our Core Services: Market Access & Reimbursement, European Regulatory & Clinical Services and Medical Communications & Marketing

About Samsara Vision

Samsara Vision is a privately held specialty medical device company engaged in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of proprietary implantable ophthalmic devices and technologies that are intended to significantly improve vision and quality of life for individuals with untreatable retinal disorders. We believe that rejuvenating eyesight revives the spirit, allowing people to reconnect to the things in life that they love to see and do. Our approach includes working collaboratively with health care providers, researchers, payers, and advocates to ensure that people living with deteriorating vision have access to our novel technologies and support paths thereby better ensuring a future where they can see anew. Learn more at https://www.samsaravision.com/

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements pursuant to U.S. Federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include those about the belief that the company’s name change better reflects Samsara’s patient centricity and focus and the belief that rejuvenating eyesight revives the spirit, allowing people to reconnect to the things in life that they love to see and do. These forward-looking statements and their implications are based on the current expectations of the management of Samsara only and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: claims by other companies and persons regarding ownership over intellectual property; changes in technology and market requirements; Samsara may encounter delays or obstacles in launching and/or successfully completing its clinical trials; Samsara’s products may not be approved by regulatory agencies, Samsara’s technology may not be validated as it progresses further and its methods may not be accepted by the scientific community; Samsara may be unable to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of its products; unforeseen scientific difficulties may develop with Samsara’s process; Samsara’s products may wind up being more expensive than it anticipates; results in the laboratory may not translate to equally good results in real clinical settings; results of preclinical studies may not correlate with the results of human clinical trials; Samsara’s patents may not be sufficient; Samsara’s products may harm recipients; changes in legislation may adversely impact Samsara; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition, which could cause the actual results or performance of Samsara to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, Samsara undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Media Contacts:
For Samsara:
Jessica Daitch
+1 917-816-6712
jessicadaitch@hotmail.com

For Medevise:
Juliana Rambaldi
+33 (0) 03 69 25 03 24
juliana@medevise-consulting.com

Released March 9, 2021