EyeSense Attracts QIAGEN as Strategic Investor

Strategic partnership to develop and commercialize a novel ophthalmic self-diagnostic system for blood glucose monitoring by diabetes patients

Basel, Switzerland, January 12th, 2011 — EyeSense AG today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with QIAGEN. Capitalizing on QIAGEN’s ESE fluorescence-based optical technology and on Eyesense’s glucose sensing technology, the partners intend to develop a new optical measurement technology for blood glucose monitoring in diabetes patients.

QIAGEN acquired a minority equity stake in EyeSense, and attained royalty rights for future commercialization. Both the investment and the partnership are aimed at further expanding the range of applications for the growing segment of point-of-need testing and individualized treatment of patients.

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EyeSense Winner of the Life Sciences Prize 2008

Last night, the Life Sciences Prize was awarded for the fifth time in Basel during the Life Sciences Week. This year’s award went to EyeSense AG, based in Basel and Grossostheim (Germany).


Basel, October 16, 2008. The prize of CHF 10'000, awarded yesterday evening for the fifth time, stands under the patronage of the Swiss Biotech Association and BioValley Basel, and is intended for young Swiss companies in the Biotech, Pharma and Medtech sectors. Sponsors of the Swiss Life Sciences Prize are BioMedinvest, Novartis Venture Fund, Varuma and Venture Incubator.

EyeSense AG, a spin-off company of Novartis and founded in 2006, is a diagnostic device company active in the field of blood glucose monitoring for diabetics. EyeSense is pursuing a totally new breakthrough concept for serving a big unmet need in diabetes treatment by replacing the current finger sticking technology. The company is using the eye as a window to the patient’s body by placing a glucose specific sensor below the conjunctiva in a simple and painless procedure. If successful, the patient will only needs a small handheld photometer placed in front of the eye to measure the blood glucose level noninvasively.

The Life Science Prize 2008 wants to award the tremendous progress
of EyeSense over the last 2 years.

As Reinhard Glück, President of Swiss Biotech Association and
Etna Biotech stated:

„ It is great to see how much EyeSense has achieved so far, including
proof-of-concept in such a demanding field. This innovative technology
can significantly improve the quality of life of so many diabetics suffering
from unwanted blood glucose fluctuations.“

The global blood glucose self-diagnostic market is projected to reach
$ 10 billion by the year 2010.