S&V Technologies of Henningsdorf Germany, founded by Bavarian chemist Christine Kreiner has developed intraocular contact lenses for the treatment of cataracts in animals.
The acrylic lenses are custom made to fit each individual recipient and implanted by company vets. Ingeborg Fromberg, head vet from the company’s veterinary division said "Cataracts generally means blindness for animals, unlike for humans," and "because animals have short life spans, it means losing quality of life in a greater share of that life."
Despite the high cost of the operation, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has already provided the funding for procedures to be carried out on brown bears resident in a Chinese nature preserve.
S&V Technologies, founded in 2008 has already established a US subsidiary based in Salt Lake City and their last reported annual turnover stood at $2m.
Fromberg observed of the potential home market for the intraocular lenses "Pets are often seen as members of the family and worth any expense." The firm has already received interest from San Diego’s Sea World to treat a sea lion performer with blurry vision and from a Romanian zoo with a lioness suffering from failing eyesight.
