■ The National Institutes of Health awarded a 2-year, $1.7 million Small Business Innovation Research grant for Injectsense Inc.’s IOP-Connect system. The device is based on an implantable IOP sensor platform that for the first time is expected to provide continuous and autonomous long-term IOP data from inside a glaucoma patient’s eye, according to the maker. The funding will allow for the integration of advanced technologies for the final product configuration and a second round of testing to be managed by the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. The results will inform animal and pilot human studies, a news release stated.

“Millions of patients, even with mild to moderate disease, are unstable and their glaucoma progresses despite what is felt to be ‘controlled’ IOP as measured in the office,” said Iqbal “Ike” K. Ahmed, professor of ophthalmology at the John Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, and a member of the Injectsense medical advisory board, in the news release. “By identifying these patients, early intervention and more effective therapy can slow vision loss.”