Bio-Engineered Cornea "ACORNEA" Exhibits at 28th Annual Meeting of European Eye Bank Association
HONG KONG, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / January 25, 2016 / China Regenerative Medicine International Limited ("CRMI" or the "Company," stock code: 8158.HK, together with its subsidiaries, collectively the "Group") is pleased to announce that the world's first bio-engineered cornea "Acornea" was exhibited at the 28th Annual Meeting of the European Eye Bank Association ("EEBA") in Aarhus, Denmark on the 22 January and has attracted much attention from experts all over the world.
To date, 27 meetings of the EEBA have been successfully hosted and this year, it attracted over 200 corneal surgeons, researchers and technicians to exchange knowledge and technical skills and establish standard practices for the treatment of eye diseases. This year's meeting focused on current state-of-the-art eye banking techniques and future strategies to optimize eye banking skills. The purpose of these meetings is to exchange information and ideas, to promote procurement and supply of human eye tissue for therapeutic purposes, to improve and adapt storage methods, and to encourage the implementation of standard operating procedures. At the same time, this is also one of the world's most influential cornea and eye banking professional academic conferences.
In the EEBA annual meeting, Dr Zhengkang Shao, CEO of CRMI, delivered a speech on 'China's self-developed world's first bio-engineered cornea "Acornea" is regulatory approved and commercialised. It is not only serving Chinese patients but also patients all over the world.' He emphasized that effective technologies, safe development and innovative products can narrow the gap between cornea donation levels and demand. "Acornea" will eventually help patients to gain better quality of life as well as enhance the collaboration between China and European eye banks. In the future, CRMI will continue to put patient's well-being ahead of all else, and strive to meet patient demand in a safe and effective manner.
According to the World Health Organisation, diseases affecting the cornea are a major cause of blindness worldwide, second only to cataracts in overall importance. Existing treatments for corneal blindness include transplantation of donated or artificial cornea. In Asia, there is an increasing number of patients with corneal diseases each year while cornea donations are in short supply. Artificial cornea fabricated from synthetic materials, such as glass, acrylic and silica gel, often have poor biocompatibility and mechanical properties. CRMI, therefore, began to develop "Acornea" since 2003. CRMI applies its tissue engineering technique on porcine cornea to preserve collagen architecture of the corneal matrix so that it can quickly integrate with patients' corneal tissue. The transplanted cornea will gradually become transparent, thus leading to a recovery of patients' vision. Clinical trial data shows an overall transplantation efficacy of 94.44%, with recovery rates very similar to that of donated corneas. Over the years, with tremendous devotion and dedication from CRMI, the self-developed "Acornea" has completed all the necessary clinical trials and obtained its product certificate approved by the China Food and Drug Administration. Moreover, it is the world's first clinically-approved bio-engineered cornea. "Acornea" is also an important milestone for CRMI in the area of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.