SynergEyes wins the 22nd annual Most Innovative New Product Award for 2009

CONNECT(R), one of the nation's most successful organizations dedicated to creating and sustaining the growth of innovative technology and life science businesses, announced SynergEyes, Inc., the high Dk hybrid contact lens manufacturer, as the winner of its 22nd annual Most Innovative New Product (MIP) Award for 2009. SynergEyes won the award in the medical products category for ClearKone(TM), its patent-pending advanced hybrid contact lens design for keratoconus patients.

The CONNECT(R) MIP Awards, San Diego's "Oscars" for regional innovation, continue to showcase cutting-edge products covering a wide range of industries. The MIP Award finalists were selected from approximately 100 entries representing a broad range of companies within eight categories. Winners were announced on December 11th at the MIP Awards Luncheon, to an audience of over 800 of San Diego's top executives, entrepreneurs, service providers and academics.

"It is a great honor to receive an award recognizing SynergEyes as a technology leader among the medical device companies in San Diego," said Kellie Kaseburg, Vice President Global Marketing, SynergEyes, Inc. "The award is a true testament to the dedicated team of SynergEyes employees who have reached technical accomplishments in the contact lens industry never before achievable."

After decades of development attempts by large Ophthalmic companies, SynergEyes, Inc., founded in 2001, has successfully developed a proprietary and patent-pending contact lens design that provides superior visual performance and excellent comfort, a unique combination among vision correction alternatives for patients suffering from a debilitating eye disease called keratoconus.

The SynergEyes ClearKone(TM) hybrid lens combines a rigid gas permeable (RGP) center that allows for oxygen permeability and the most precise optics with a "skirt" of soft material allowing for healthy, all-day comfort. This "hybrid" design incorporates the benefits of two types of contact lenses into one. The SynergEyes differentiator is a patented bonding technology which attaches the soft "skirt" to the RGP lens, providing for an improved and smooth connection that ensures no detachment.

The patent-pending ClearKone(TM) design is optimized to vault the predominant irregularities of the keratoconic cornea, thus effectively restoring vision to a vast majority of irregular cornea patients, without compromising comfort or eye health, even in the most challenging cases.

Keratoconus is the most common dystrophy of the cornea, affecting approximately one in every 2,000 people. Patients with this condition suffer from significant distortion of vision and have few options for vision correction short of a corneal transplant. Eye glasses cannot correct keratoconus and traditional contact lens options available to keratoconic patients generally result in less-than-optimal results, compromising on either visual acuity or comfort. At least 90% of all patients with keratoconus require contact lenses.

Since its market release in May 2009, approximately 2,500 patients have been prescribed ClearKone(TM) lenses. In addition, 90,000 people have been prescribed lenses from the SynergEyes family of hybrid contact lenses in the United States and several international locations.

ClearKone(TM) is currently being prescribed in a number of locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.K. Keratoconus patients can visit http://www.SharingOneVision.com to locate a ClearKone(TM) practitioner.

Incorporating patented HyperBond(TM) technology and HydrolEyes(TM) surface science, the SynergEyes(R) contact lenses with FDA market clearance include: SynergEyes(R) A for naturally occurring ametropia, targeting patients with astigmatism, current gas permeable lens wearers, and patients demanding optimized vision; the SynergEyes(R) Multifocal lens for presbyopia; SynergEyes(R) KC and ClearKone(TM) for keratoconus; and the SynergEyes(R) PS for post-surgery and post trauma refractive errors.