ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iChek, a pioneer in the development of an active contact lens technology for glucose and hydration monitoring, is pleased to announce today the addition of Steve Martin to its advisory board. Mr. Martin is a nationally recognized and accomplished executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the optical and medical device industry. He is the founder of Ciba Vision Optics, now part of Alcon and Ciba Vision Ophthalmics, now part of Novartis. While at Ciba Vision, he and his team grew sales to over $1.2 Billion and led more than 6,000 employees.
“Mr. Martin is an accomplished visionary who brings a wealth of optical and medical device knowledge as well as entrepreneurial expertise to iChek,” said James Shu, iChek CEO. “Mr. Martin will help guide our platform technology through commercialization as we look to solve the large healthcare challenges related to invasive monitoring devices.”
The company is focusing efforts on research and development which includes prototyping. iChek will soon begin clinicals for their active contact lens technology, thus bringing the company closer to providing the first monitoring based contact lens for the consumer marketplace.
Additional biographical information of Steve Martin and iChek advisors can be found below or at www.ichektears.com/about-us/leadership/
About iChek, www.ichektears.com
iChek, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional research and development in Baltimore, is a pioneer in the development of an active contact lens technology for glucose and hydration monitoring. iChek is currently developing a non-invasive and convenient method to monitor glucose and hydration levels using a contact lens with embedded sensors. The iChek lens can provide visual correction like all current lenses or be with no optical correction. The light source will be from a small attachment to an iOS or android device that can collect, store (in the cloud), analyze, send, and present the objectively measured data to the user, care giver or physician. The technology was developed at the University of Maryland by a group of preeminent researchers.
Steve Martin, is an experienced executive and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the optical and medical device industry. Mr. Martin founded CIBA VISION Optics (now part of Alcon) in 1980 and CIBA Vision Ophthalmics (now part of Novartis) in 1990. He and his team grew sales of the combined companies to over $1.2 Billion with more than 6,000 employees. CIBA Vision is a world leader in the field of soft contact lenses, lens-care products and ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. Steve Martin was President of CIBA Vision Corporation USA until 1998. Steve has personally successfully negotiated more than 70 licensing and acquisition deals with values ranging from $1 million to $320 million. Mr. Martin holds 6 issued U.S. Patents for his inventions and a number of European Patents. Steve was a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.