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Start-up company EyeSense wins 2008 Life Sciences award
The Swiss Life Sciences Prize for 2008 has been awarded to Novartis spin-off EyeSense.
The prize is worth 10,000 Swiss francs. EyeSense wants to develop a way of allowing diabetics to measure their blood sugar painlessly without the need for blood samples.
EyeSense is a spin-off from Novartis that is located in Basel and Grossostheim (D). The company, which was founded in 2006, is working on a subconjunctival implant that acts as a glucose-specific sensor. If the development works, diabetic sufferers will one day only have to hold a small photometer in front of the eye in order to measure their blood sugar. The conventional finger prick will be a thing of the past.
The prize jury judges the achievements of EyeSense so far to be “excellent”. The innovative technology, it was stated in a communication on Thursday, can substantially improve the quality of life for many diabetic sufferers.
According to the company’s homepage, EyeSense is still at the stage of research and development. The market launch is planned for 2010. The Life Sciences Prize is sponsored by the Swiss Biotech Association and BioValley Basel and is awarded to young pharmaceutical or medical engineering companies.