CHAIRMAN, CEO, GLAUKOS
WHY: Chief executive, director since 2002 of medical device maker that treats glaucoma, one of the world’s leading causes of blindness. Aliso Viejo’s most valuable public company, best known for the iStent, among the smallest medical devices ever made.
FUTURE PLANS: New products include a tiny eye implant, iDose TR, that for as long as three years releases into the anterior chamber a proprietary formulation of travoprost, a medicine used to lower intraocular pressure. Instead of a typical 2,190 eye drops administered per eye during a three-year period, a patient only needs “one administration” of iDose. Awaiting approvals from the FDA.
BY THE NUMBERS: iStent has been implanted in more than 1 million eyes worldwide; iDose has an estimated U.S. opportunity of 3 million eyes. Invested $400 million in R&D since 2018; shares since then are up more than threefold to a $3.2 billion market cap as of October. Sales are expected to grow 8% this year to nearly $300 million.
IN THEIR WORDS: Company’s “iDose should become a game-changing device within ophthalmology.”
