IRIDEX Corporation (Nasdaq: IRIX) announced today that its China distributor has been awarded a competitive tender for more than $620,000 in ophthalmology laser equipment to fulfill a government program designed to provide advanced ophthalmology solutions to patients across vast areas of China's rural regions.
Will Moore, IRIDEX President and CEO, said, "In China, like all countries, diabetes and age-related eye diseases are rising at an alarming rate, causing varying degrees of blindness and an accompanying cost to the healthcare system and society. The Chinese government has developed a number of progressive strategies to provide advanced healthcare technologies in the rural areas of the country, including ophthalmic care. The logistics and cost of drug treatments is prohibitive in many of these regions. Alternatively, IRIDEX laser-based treatments are as effective as drugs in terms of outcomes, are much less costly to a healthcare system, and are much easier to administer from a logistics standpoint because they provide durable results following a single treatment."
Moore added that the advances in laser-based therapies are also ushering in a paradigm shift in the U.S. and European ophthalmology markets, including diabetic macular edema (DME) and glaucoma treatments.
"The ability now to achieve durable results against the progression of DME and glaucoma without harming healthy tissue poses an attractive option for physicians and their patients facing the high costs and low compliance rates associated with drug-only approaches," Moore said.
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