Alcon has shed further light on its plans for the technology acquired in its purchase of Australian medical technology company Cylite and its Hyperparallel Optical Coherence Tomography (HP-OCT) system.
The global eyecare giant acquired the “cutting-edge technology for whole-eye OCT imaging and measurement diagnostics”, in a January 2025 deal.
The HP-OCT device – that Cylite’s Australian-based workforce has developed, built and scaled for the past 11 years – is already in real world clinical use, with Insight interviewing the world’s first independent optometrist to purchase the system in 2024.
But attention has turned to what the Alcon acquisition will mean for existing users and prospective customers.
In a statement, Alcon confirmed to Insight it would “not continue to commercialise the standalone HP-OCT device”.
“However, we look forward to providing updates in the future on how we are integrating this innovation into our growing eyecare diagnostics portfolio.”
It remains to be seen exactly which of its own systems Alcon will incorporate the IP into.
Cylite, which was “thrilled that the global leader in eyecare sees the immense potential of our cutting-edge technology”, said on its website existing customers can continue to reach out to their Cylite customer contacts for service and support.
Any prospective customers can direct queries to an Alcon sales representative.
Alcon added: “We are in contact with all customers and directly provided them with all the information they need in terms of contacts, etc. and we continue to work closely with them.”
Cylite was founded in 2013 in Melbourne with the backing of four prominent Australian scientists – Dr Steve Frisken, Mr Grant Frisken, Mr Trevor Anderson, and Dr Simon Poole – drawn from the fields of photonics, optics, instrumentation, and software development.
It was thought to be the only Australian company working in the ophthalmic diagnostic OCT space, an area traditionally dominated by the US, Germany, and Japan.
Cylite has been an Australian manufacturing success story, with the company able to develop, scale and commercialise its highly specialised medical technology in-house at its Melbourne factory, under Ms Kylee Hall who initially came into the company as VP for sales and marketing in 2020 before taking over from Dr Steve Frisken as CEO in April 2022.
While OCT is mostly perceived as a retinal imaging system, the Cylite HP-OCT’s greatest initial strength has been in the front of eye where the company says it creates true volumetric, or 3D, images of intricate anterior segment structures in a single snapshot. It has retinal capability too.
Scans are acquired at industry-leading rates of more than 300,000 A-scans per second. This means it can capture a full biometry scan in seconds, enabling accurate, motion- artefact-free measurements of all ocular surfaces.
Users can slice and cut the scan in any direction, X, Y or Z axis – all without any gaps, holes or B-scan stitching artefacts to deal with, the company said.
Regarding the Alcon acquisition, Cylite wrote on its Linkedin page: “Keep an eye out for future updates on how we are working together to incorporate this innovation into Alcon’s comprehensive eyecare portfolio.”
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