Science Corporation, a brain-computer interface start-up founded by former Neuralink president Max Hodak, has won approval from Europe's medical device regulator to sell PRIMA, a chip implant that restores vision lost to age-related macular degeneration. The device has also received a designation from the US Food and Drug Administration that marks the first step towards an expedited review, potentially widening its use to two rare forms of blindness. The approval is significant because it gives Science a commercial product to generate revenue while it continues developing more ambitious, longer-term brain-computer interface technology.

Age-related macular degeneration affects millions worldwide by destroying light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye, impairing reading and facial recognition. PRIMA is fitted via an hour-long outpatient procedure implanting a small chip behind the eye, which works alongside camera-equipped glasses that transmit images to the chip; Hodak says patients have been able to read novels and complete puzzles as a result. Science acquired the French firm Pixium, which originally developed PRIMA, in 2024, and each device is expected to cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, with reimbursement talks under way with European healthcare providers. The company plans to launch first in Germany, potentially in September, while continuing to refine the technology and pursue separate trials of a directly implanted bio-hybrid brain sensor with Yale Medical School.