Samsara Vision Promotes Jason Herod to President and Chief Executive Officer

FAR HILLS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsara Vision, a company focused on bringing vision and freedom back to patients with late-stage, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) through advanced visual prosthetic devices, today announced the promotion of Jason Herod to President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 28, 2026. Having joined Samsara Vision in 2021, Mr. Herod was most recently Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for executing the commercialization of the company’s flagship product, the Smaller-Incision New-Generation Implantable Miniature Telescope (SING IMT^®) for late-stage AMD.

With more than 29 years of ophthalmic medical device, pharmaceutical, and OTC business experience, Mr. Herod joined Samsara Vision after 15 years with Alcon, where he was most recently the Global Senior Director, Presbyopia Correcting IOLs, Surgical. Prior to that, he held many commercial and marketing roles of increasing responsibility in General Management, country, regional and global marketing, and as the Franchise Head for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia. Mr. Herod earned his Bachelor degree in Commerce from Saint Mary’s University in Canada and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Toronto in Canada.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead Samsara Vision, particularly during a time of immense growth,” said Mr. Herod. “In CE Referenced countries, where the SING IMT is approved for use, we have seen tremendous excitement and uptake of our device for late-stage AMD, where it has been implanted in over 550 patients in 19 countries. We are also looking forward to the start of the PERSPECTIVE study, our recently announced European clinical trial that will evaluate SING IMT outcomes in patients with pseudophakic eyes in the hopes that we can reach even more patients impacted by late-stage AMD.”

The PERSPECTIVE study is the first-of-its-kind to assess outcomes in pseudophakic eyes within a controlled, multinational setting. The inclusion of pseudophakic patients (those having had previous cataract surgery) is clinically significant because this major subgroup represents a large proportion of individuals affected by late-stage AMD who are not eligible for any other interventions. The primary endpoints will assess safety, visual outcomes, patient selection criteria, and rehabilitation strategies.

Additional Organization Updates

In addition to Mr. Herod’s promotion, Faustino Vidal Aroca, PhD, has assumed the role of Global Vice President, Clinical and Medical Affairs, Syed Rashid assumes the role of Global Vice President, Market Access and Europe Commercial, Zubair Hussain, PhD joins as Global Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality, and Pedro Gonçalves joins as Global Vice President of Marketing.

About SING IMT^®

The SING IMT^® is an intraocular telescope (IOT) approved for use in patients without previous cataract surgery and 55 years and older in CE Referenced countries and is under investigation in the United States for patients 65 years and older meeting specific eye health criteria. There is no cure for late-stage AMD and the SING IMT^® does not return vision to the level a patient had before AMD, nor will it completely make up for vision loss. The most common risks/adverse events of the SING IMT^® surgery include inflammatory deposits or precipitates on the device, increased intraocular pressure and corneal edema. There is a risk that having the telescope implantation surgery could worsen vision rather than improve it. Individual results may vary.

About Samsara Vision

Samsara Vision is a privately held specialty medical device company headquartered in the United States and engaged in the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of proprietary implantable ophthalmic devices and technologies that are intended to significantly improve vision and quality of life for individuals with untreatable retinal disorders. We believe that rejuvenating eyesight revives the spirit, allowing people to reconnect to the things in life that they love to see and do. Our approach includes working collaboratively with health care providers, researchers, payers, and advocates to ensure people living with deteriorating vision have access to our novel technologies and support paths offering hope to patients who before had no approved treatment options.

Learn more at https://www.samsaravision.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements pursuant to U.S. Federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include those about the potential benefits to be derived from the SING IMT^® and the intent to work closely with the FDA to determine a timely pathway to bring the SING IMT^® to market in the United States and the belief that rejuvenating eyesight revives the spirit, allowing people to reconnect to the things in life that they love to see and do. These forward-looking statements and their implications are based on the current expectations of the management of Samsara Vision only, and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: claims by other companies and persons regarding ownership over intellectual property; changes in technology and market requirements; Samsara Vision may encounter delays or obstacles in launching and/or successfully completing its clinical trials; Samsara Vision’s products may not be approved by regulatory agencies, Samsara Vision’s technology may not be validated as it progresses further and its methods may not be accepted by the scientific community; Samsara may be unable to retain or attract key employees whose knowledge is essential to the development of its products; unforeseen scientific difficulties may develop with Samsara’s process; Samsara’s products may wind up being more expensive than it anticipates; results in the laboratory may not translate to equally good results in real clinical settings; results of preclinical studies may not correlate with the results of human clinical trials; Samsara’s patents may not be sufficient; Samsara’s products may harm recipients; changes in legislation may adversely impact Samsara; inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications; the risk factors and uncertainties described in the Registration Statement on Form S-1, as amended (File No. 333-260742) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; loss of market share and pressure on pricing resulting from competition, which could cause the actual results or performance of Samsara to differ materially from those contemplated in such forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise required by law, Samsara undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.