Vision & Eye Care

SpyGlass Pharma, Inc. announced today it has acquired all outstanding shares of common stock of Advanced Vision Science, Inc., an ophthalmic medical device company and manufacturer of intraocular lenses and lens materials, for approximately $13 million in cash. AVS was a wholly owned subsidiary of Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and is the current supplier of the intraocular lens used in SpyGlass Pharma's two Phase 3 registrational trials evaluating the BIM-IOL System. The acquisition secures scalable commercial intraocular lens manufacturing capacity for SpyGlass Pharma's lead product candidate and accelerates its pathway to adding premium lens options into its intraocular-lens-based drug delivery system. Under the agreement, AVS will be the exclusive manufacturer and supplier of several types of intraocular lenses to Santen for commercialization in Japan, and will continue to license its glistening-free hydrophobic acrylic lens material to Bausch + Lomb for use in the enVista intraocular lens line and manufacture products for other global intraocular lens companies. SpyGlass Pharma said it intends to continue supporting AVS customers and licensees utilizing their proprietary intraocular lens material technology, such as Santen, Bausch + Lomb, and other global intraocular lens companies.

Bernstein has named Sonova as its short-term top pick and Alcon as its preferred long-term idea in a new H2 playbook for European medtech, assigning both "outperform" ratings with price targets of CHF 275 and CHF 76.15, respectively. Sonova, the world's No. 1 player in the $7.7 billion hearing aid wholesale market with roughly a 25% unit share, is expected to benefit from a multi-pronged growth setup into its H1 2026/27E results in November, with Bernstein forecasting H1 wholesale organic growth of 10.1% versus consensus at 8% and Group organic growth of 6.5% versus consensus of 4.9%. The bull case rests on continued strength from the EON Sphere launch, further share gains at Costco, where the Infinio-based device only entered the channel in March 2026, and another seven months of tailwind from Virto R hearing aid sales, plus a sharp H2 improvement in the Cochlear Implant business and accelerating M&A contribution in Retail as rivals Demant and Amplifon remain financially constrained. Bernstein's core EBIT estimates sit 5-8% above consensus across 2026/27E-2028/29E. On Alcon, the dominant ophthalmology player holding #1 or #2 positions across most of its sub-markets, Bernstein argues investor sentiment on the intraocular lens and consumables businesses has become "overly negative" and that the pressure is "largely transitory," expecting implantables growth to accelerate to 4% in 2027. Bernstein's constant-currency revenue growth estimates run 38-112 bps above consensus for 2026E-2028E, with core EPS estimates 1-9% higher, and at roughly 17x NTM P/E it sees an attractive entry point into what it calls a "multi-year compounding business."

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended approval of Roche's Susvimo for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Susvimo is the first continuous delivery treatment that offers an alternative to standard-of-care eye injections, using the Contivue refillable implant to deliver a customized formulation of ranibizumab with as few as two treatments per year. The positive recommendation is based on data from the LADDER, Archway, and Portal studies showing Susvimo maintained vision equivalent to monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injections, with longer-term data supporting maintenance of vision up to seven years. A final decision from the European Commission is expected in the near future. Neovascular age-related macular degeneration affects 1.7 million people in the European Union and is a leading cause of blindness in people over 60.