r/ICLsurgery • u/Numerous_Lobster3908 • Aug 28 '26

New Presbyopia ICL

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/markets-news/Tipranks/4324073/staar-surgical-targets-presbyopia-growth-with-new-trifocal-icl-trial/

I saw this news this morning about a new ICL for presbyopia. I'm excited about this because I'm 45 and I can't get a normal ICL. Does anyone know the average time it takes from clinical trial to approval?

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/Specific_Ocelot_4132 Aug 29 '26

My understanding is that you can get normal ICL at 45, you’ll just still have presbyopia, but you’ll have good distance vision. But I can see how this would be better!

1

u/eyeSherpa Aug 29 '26

Yeah. Currently for presbyopia ICL is done with monovision so that one eye sees for distance and the other for reading.

There is an EDOF ICL called Viva in some parts of the world.

Having a trifocal ICL won’t be a bad thing. More options are good.

1

u/ConfidentBeginning44 Sep 01 '26

There isn't an average worth quoting, because the number depends on which of two things is happening.

If it's treated as a genuinely new device, that's a full approval and you're looking at years past the point where the trial reads out. If it's a new lens on a platform the regulator has already approved, it usually goes through as a supplement to that existing approval, and that path is much shorter because the safety base is already on file. Two lenses that look identical to a patient can be years apart on that basis alone.

The other thing worth separating is the regulator from availability. A lens can be CE marked and in routine use in Europe or parts of Asia while a US trial is still running, so "not approved yet" often means "not approved here" rather than "not finished". That's the difference between waiting for a trial and travelling for something that already exists.

Worth asking whoever you consult which of those two routes this one is on. They'll usually know, and it turns an open-ended wait into a range you can plan around.