Surgeon’s 15-Second UVC Treatment for Corneal Infections Wins 2020 Winning Pitch Challenge

Sunil Shah, MD, of the UK, won the 2020 Winning Pitch Challenge with a UVC device he co-invented to treat corneal infections with ultraviolet light. He represented Photon Therapeutics and its team of five in the competition.

The hour-long event was held live online July 18 after the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery moved to a virtual format due to the pandemic. The Winning Pitch Challenge made its debut at the 2019 ASCRS meeting.

The 2020 event featured the final round of the competition for entrepreneurial ophthalmologists, during which the three finalists pitched their device or software ideas to a panel of experienced industry professionals.

Ophthalmologists Vance Thompson, MD, and Edward Holland, MD, served as hosts.

The Judges

Competition judges were Juliet Bakker, managing partner and founder of Longitude Capital; Richard Lindstrom, MD, founder of Minnesota Eye Consultants and part of Flying L Partners; Bill Link, PhD, also of Flying L Partners; and Jim Mazzo, advisor to Carl Zeiss Meditec, executive chairman at Neurotech, and advisor to Bain Capital. No officials received compensation for taking part.

The Sponsors

Sponsors were Zeiss, Flying L Partners, Minnesota Eye Consultants, Longitude Capital, Capitol Summit, Matt Jensen Marketing, Ora, RxSight, and RDPROD.

The Prizes

First prize was $25 thousand, second prize was $15 thousand, and third prize was $5 thousand. But the real value for competitors was to raise awareness of their invention and receive guidance and feedback from mentors and others.

Winning Ophthalmologist

Shah, the winner, is a cataract and cornea specialist, as well as a researcher, innovator, and professor.

Shah’s procedure involves using his UVC device for 15 seconds to treat the infected area of the cornea. It is repeatable and can be used with or instead of conventional therapy.

Ultraviolet C (UVC), which falls roughly in the middle of the ultraviolet spectrum, has been used in disinfection since the late 19th century.

Shah described his UVC treatment as simple, effective, and able to kill all known germs through its natural disinfecting process. Shah said the process was safe and caused no damage to healthy cells at the dosage used.

He described the potential human market as 300 thousand corneal infections in the US and 2 million in the developing world.

Proton plans to focus first on the veterinary market, with 3 million corneal infections a year in the US, Shah said. He didn’t define what animals were covered by this data point.

He described his timeline for seeking US approval and said pursuing 510(k) clearance could shorten the process.

Proton plans to sell the device and charge a per-use fee. The company also is looking at other indications to target.

Shah’s mentor for the competition was John Berdahl, MD.

The other two finalists were Gul Nankani, MD, who is developing BYNOCS cloud-based software for binocular assessment and therapy of amblyopia; and Prakhyat Roop, MD, a repeat finalist, who is developing an edgeless diffractive lens.

The 2021 Winning Pitch Challenge will be held in conjunction with the physical ASCRS meeting Aug. 13-27 in San Francisco.