Samsara Vision Appoints Three New Members to the Board of Directors

Samsara Vision, a developer of advanced visual prosthetic devices for patients living with late-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD), is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors: Jonathan H. Talamo, M.D., Tracy M. Valorie, and David Schiff, joining Thierry Clidiere, Steve Denelsky, and Thomas Ruggia, chief executive officer of Samsara Vision.

Earlier this year, VisionCare, Inc. changed its name to Samsara Vision. Borrowing from Sanskrit, the word samsara describes a path of rebirth and growth. Samsara better reflects the company’s patient centricity and focus on helping some of the most vulnerable people in our society on a path towards new sight and unforeseen functional possibilities.

New Board Members Add Depth of Experience

Internationally known as an experienced surgeon and thought leader in the ophthalmology field, particularly in the areas of corneal disease, cataract and refractive surgery, Jonathan H. Talamo, M.D. until January 2020 was the Chief Medical Officer/Worldwide VP of Clinical and Medical Affairs, Johnson and Johnson Vision. Also an experienced health care executive, Dr. Talamo previously was the Chief Medical Officer at Ocular Therapeutix. With more than 25 years of clinical practice experience in Boston, MA, he is the founder, board member and medical director of Ophthalmic ASC (Surgisite Boston) and the founder, managing partner and medical director of Laser Eye Center of Boston, LLC. Dr. Talamo is a past recipient of Honor and Senior Achievement awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Since 2019, Tracy M. Valorie is the owner and president of TMV Associates LLC, a strategic consulting firm to pharmaceutical and medical devices companies with a focus on early stage and start-up activations. With more than 25 years’ experience in general management, commercial development, strategic planning, and brand and customer marketing, Ms. Valorie found success at Bausch + Lomb, were she was most recently the Sr. Vice President, General Manager Bausch + Lomb, a Valeant Company US Pharmaceuticals and Surgical Business, and Sr. Vice President, General Manager Women’s Health. She also spent 21 years supporting the ophthalmologic and other business lines at Pfizer.

David Schiff is the co-founder and CEO of Innovatus Capital Partners, a boutique specialty finance asset management firm focused on private credit and asset-based investments and serves on the investment committee of all Innovatus investment vehicles. He participates on the boards of several portfolio companies across healthcare, consumer and equipment businesses and has managed capital for limited partners across institutions, pension funds and endowments over the last twenty-five years. Prior to founding Innovatus, Mr. Schiff was a Partner at Perella Weinberg Partners and the Portfolio Manager of the Asset Based Value Funds from 2008 to 2016 that had over $2 billion of equity under management.

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 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.

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.

Released January 27, 2021