ALAMEDA, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 22, 2026--
Science Corporation, the neural engineering and brain-computer interface (BCI) company, today announced the European commercial launch of PRIMA, the first and only treatment shown in clinical trials to restore functional central vision to patients with geographic atrophy (GA) caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. PRIMA has received a CE (Conformité Européenne) mark under the European Union Medical Device Regulation from DEKRA, authorizing its commercial availability across 30 European countries.
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Papers recently published by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) [ original article, editorial ] showed that PRIMA restored vision to patients suffering from GA due to AMD.
PRIMA is the first BCI device to receive CE marking for form vision restoration (reading letters, numbers, and words). The company also announced that country-specific reimbursement applications and clinical site activations are underway across Europe. The first commercial implant of PRIMA is expected soon in Germany.
“We are proud to be the first BCI company with a CE marked device for the restoration of detailed form vision. For decades, losing central vision to this disease meant losing the ability to read, recognize faces, and ultimately losing independence. There was no viable treatment. Now there is,” said Max Hodak, CEO and co-founder of Science. “We intend to make access to PRIMA real and reimbursable, as quickly as possible.”
“The CE marking is an exciting moment, making PRIMA commercially available to patients,” said Frank Holz, MD, lead author of the PRIMA NEJM paper, lead investigator, and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital of Bonn, Germany. “It has been demonstrated in clinical trials that with PRIMA, we can restore functional central vision in patients blinded by geographic atrophy. These patients, who had lost their central vision completely, have had it restored and can read letters, numbers, and words.”
In the United States, Science is working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to bring PRIMA to the US market. PRIMA has received FDA Breakthrough Device designation and Humanitarian Use Device designation.
AMD-associated GA affects more than five million people globally, causing the progressive destruction of photoreceptors at the center of the retina (responsible for reading and recognizing faces), and eventual blindness.
A multi-center clinical trial evaluated the PRIMA BCI implant system in 38 patients across 17 clinical sites in five countries. The study results, published by the NEJM, include:
The PRIMA BCI system is a novel subretinal photovoltaic implant paired with specialized glasses. The glasses project near-infrared light to the implant which converts it into electrical stimulation signals. A “zoom-in” feature provides patients with the ability to magnify letters. The implant has an ultra-thin profile and seamless, wireless integration.
Science has raised approximately $490 million in total capital (much of it devoted to the commercialization of PRIMA), which established the company as one of the best-capitalized in the sector.
Anyone interested in more information on PRIMA may visit science.xyz/prima or register their interest at patients.science.xyz.
About Science
Science Corporation is a vertically integrated, full-stack neural engineering company. Our mission is to restore and extend life by transcending the limits of biology. Our first commercially available product is the PRIMA implant for blindness caused by geographic atrophy in patients with age-related macular degeneration. We are developing other advanced brain-computer interface technologies and devices to address critical unmet medical needs and, longer term, to transform the human condition through neural engineering and advanced perfusion technology. Science is headquartered in Alameda, California, with offices in Paris, France. For more information, please visit: www.science.xyz.
The PRIMA glasses (Photo Credit: Science Corporation)
The PRIMA implant held between tweezers (Photo Credit: Science Corporation)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Iran that the U.S. will destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The warning came after the U.S. carried out another wave of strikes on Iran, where air defenses opened fire over the capital, Tehran. Iran launched a missile attack on a Jordanian city on Israel’s doorstep, and alerts were issued in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
In his warning on social media, the president returned to earlier threats to target civilian infrastructure in retaliation for Iranian attacks.
“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” Trump wrote on social media.
The 11th night of American airstrikes on Iran came as diplomatic efforts have shown little public sign of progress. Officials on both sides have dug in on their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed because of Iranian attacks.
Iran has avoided striking Israel since hostilities resumed last month, apparently hoping to keep it from reentering the war. But the missile and drone attack on Jordan’s city of Aqaba, within sight of Israel’s Eilat, raised concerns over a further widening of the conflict after an agreement to halt hostilities collapsed.
The closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passed during peacetime, has jolted the world economy with effects far beyond the Middle East. A new threat by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea puts another trade chokepoint at risk.
Benchmark Brent crude oil rose to around $94 a barrel in trading, and gasoline prices are once again climbing ahead of U.S. midterm elections this fall.
Jordan’s military said it intercepted four Iranian missiles over Aqaba, while two others fell in “uninhabited areas.” Plumes of smoke could be seen overhead in videos filmed by people in the nearby Israeli city of Eilat. Jordan said it also intercepted four Iranian drones.
Another missile alert sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia warned residents of the Persian Gulf city of Dammam to seek shelter. Saudi authorities later said the danger had passed, without elaborating.
The U.S. military said earlier Wednesday that it had completed an 11th night of strikes on Iran, with targets including aircraft hangars and drone storage sites.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported explosions across several provinces. Iran's Health Ministry says U.S. strikes over the past 11 days have killed 53 people, including six women and three children, and wounded nearly 600 people.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard insisted its retaliatory attacks would continue.
Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Zeinivand said “diplomacy isn’t called off” and that messages were still being exchanged, without elaborating, according to IRNA.
At a regional summit in the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Iran’s actions in the strait.
“If we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” he said.
In response to Iran’s attacks, the U.S. re-imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had “no interest in meeting.”
He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an under-construction Iranian nuclear site buried deep under a mountain.
The site, known as Pickaxe Mountain, lies on the south side of Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which was bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in 2025. But Pickaxe Mountain has remained untouched as Iran continues to dig at the site.
Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, while resuming the enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels since Trump scrapped a 2015 nuclear deal during his first term. The U.S. and others believe Iran had a nuclear weapons program until 2003 and may reconstitute it in the future.
Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Michelle L. Price and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines Wednesday, July 22, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool Photo via AP)
