There is severe shortage of human cadaver corneas for corneal transplants. Human corneas begin to degrade quickly with a usable shelf that is approximately 2 weeks. The Cornea Biosciences cornea remains unchanged up to six months when stored under recommended conditions. Ideally, a human cadaver cornea would be a first choice of corneal transplants surgeons; however, the LinCor cornea has several advantages over a human cornea.

Although the risk of disease transmission is low with human corneas, they must undergo expensive and time consuming testing to ensure there are no disease that can be transmitted from donor to host.

Depending upon the type of procedure and complexity of the condition to be treated a corneal transplant is usually done in less than 1 hour.

Initially, the company’s corneas will be used for corneal transplants in patients who are suitable for anterior lamellar keratoplasty including keratoconus and central corneal scars. Additional conditions will be added with additional research.

Costs of corneal transplants vary widely by country, type of procedure, instrumentation used in the procedure, and the quality of the corneas used and their source.

There are several artificial corneas or keratoprostheses available on the market. These include the Boston Kpro, Alphacor, and Keraclear.

The Cornea Biosciences™ cornea has been tested in a small population of patients ages 10 to 88 years. It is unknown whether the cornea will be suitable for other age patients