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The Caterna Vision Training is a telemedical procedure developed as a medical product that treats the visual impairment called lazy eye (amblyopia) among children through computer-assisted therapy. 300 doctors have already prescribed our therapy and more than 1,000 patients have already been treated with Caterna Vision Training. 18 health insurance companies already cover the costs. We are now starting the marketing campaign to address affected parents directly.
Caterna attracts more health insurance companies
With the R+V Betriebskrankenkasse, a further health insurance company has taken over the costs for the Caterna therapy since this month.
About 6% of all children in Germany suffer from the visual impairment called amblyopia. Currently, there are around 400,000 children affected in Germany.
When treating amblyopia with the so-called occlusion therapy, one covers the child's stronger eye with an eye patch in order to train the brain. This conventional method of treatment can take up to 2.5 years.
The therapy does not work for about one-third of the children. Moreover, many children find the patch unpleasant and lose the motivation to wear it.
The digital health startup Caterna solves these problems with its online therapy, which is certified as a medical product and serves as a supplement to the traditional occlusion therapy.
The Caterna Vision Training is a computer-assisted therapy in which children play computer games, which have a special wave pattern running in the background, every day for 30-45 minutes.
This wave pattern in the background stimulates the brain to reactivate the connection to the weak eye.
The proof of concept has already been made: Clinical studies show a significant improvement in the child’s vision after being treated with the Caterna therapy.
Since Caterna Vision Training is a telemedical application, children can play the online games conveniently and comfortably from home. Furthermore, Caterna Vision Training has already been launched on the market.
18 health insurance companies already cover the therapy costs ("app on prescription"). This corresponds to 20% of all patients. In our experience, the costs are even reimbursed for approximately 50% of patients in the scope of individual case decisions.
So far, 300 ophthalmologists have prescribed our therapy and have treated more than 1,000 patients with the Caterna Vision Training.
Caterna is financed by the VC Peppermint VenturePartners, which specializes in healthcare startups, and by BFB Brandenburg Kapital GmbH, a subsidiary of the Investment Bank of the State of Brandenburg (ILB), and the KfW.
With the support of its investors, Caterna was able to establish its medical product in the primary healthcare market.
We will use the funds from the financing through Companisto to expand the reach of our online marketing campaign to address affected parents directly and to advance our aim of internationalization.
Amblyopia - A real need for therapy
Amblyopia is a functional disorder of the brain that usually affects one eye and develops in early childhood, usually as a result of strabismus (being cross-eyed) or a strong difference in the vision of the two eyes (anisometropia). If amblyopia remains untreated, visual acuity is permanently limited. This often has a negative effect on the ability to see in 3D (stereopsis).
In amblyopia, the transmission of information from the amblyopic eye to the visual cortex is suppressed or reduced; glasses cannot solve the problem. It is estimated that between 4 and 6% of people worldwide are affected. One assumes a prevalence of 6% in Germany.
The standard therapy of amblyopia is occlusion therapy, in which the healthy eye is covered using an eye patch. However, this therapy does not always lead to the desired success:
- Many children do not attach the patch as they should (adherence problems)
- Approx. 30% of occlusion therapies do not show the desired therapeutic success
- Covering the healthy eye goes hand in hand with social stigmatization.
Our solution - The Caterna Vision Training
Caterna Vision has developed the first online therapy for the treatment of amblyopia and distributes it as a medical product in the German primary health market. The Caterna therapy is a supplement to the conventional occlusion therapy (covering up the healthy eye). The Caterna therapy is the first digital therapy that is reimbursed by health insurance companies in Germany (first app on prescription).
The therapy approach is based on the old pleoptic therapy procedures, which rely on active stimulation of the affected eye. The brain is stimulated through the amblyopic eye by means of a therapeutic pattern that is adjusted on the basis of a medical prescription in order to restore the connection between the visual cortex and the amblyopic eye.
The child can apply the therapy via telemedicine. During the 90 days of therapy, the child's attention is tied to the therapeutic pattern on the screen through semi-transparent video games. The child plays the games while the therapeutic pattern in the background stimulates the brain to reactivate the suppressed connection and to thus increase the visual acuity of the amblyopic eye.
Caterna generates income through payment for the treatment. Each Caterna therapy costs EUR 380 gross for self-payers.
There are two reimbursement models for the Caterna Vision Training. The patient is either reimbursed for the therapy by his health insurance within the framework of a selective contract (and the doctor receives EUR 145 for therapy accompaniment). Alternatively, the patient pays EUR 380 for the Caterna visual training as a self-payer (the doctor bills his therapy accompaniment as an individual health service, IGeL for short). In the second case, the patient can ask his health insurance company to reimburse the costs on an individual basis.
The Caterna Vision Training is a certified class I medical product. 18 statutory health insurance companies in Germany currently reimburse patients for the therapy costs within the scope of selective contracts.
To date, more than 1,000 patients have already been treated with Caterna Vision Training, 40% of them via selective contracts. More than 300 ophthalmologists have already prescribed the therapy.
Another potential is internationalization. We translate the Caterna Vision Training into the respective language in order to treat patients in other countries. At present, the available languages are English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish. Since most international markets tend to be self-payer markets, this potential can be leveraged more quickly because there is no need to negotiate contracts with the local cost bearers first.
There currently is no other certified medical product on the German market that can be used if occlusion therapy (covering the healthy eye) does not work or does not work quickly enough.
The Caterna Vision Training is a supplement to the previous therapy and is used when the results of conventional therapy are not satisfactory. The Caterna Vision Training is also used if the children do not carry out the patch therapy because they are unmotivated or if, for example, there is time pressure due to imminent school enrollment.
Caterna Vision Training's playful approach naturally also has a positive effect on the motivation of young patients.
18 health insurance companies already reimburse the Caterna therapy by default and even self-paying patients can apply to their insurance company for reimbursement for individual cases.
Competition
Occlusion therapy has been the gold standard of amblyopia therapy for over 100 years. It is still the predominant therapy in Germany.
There are currently no comparable medical products available on the German market.
There are some approaches to amblyopia therapy in the USA and Canada. Most of these use a binocular therapy approach (therapy of both eyes), while the Caterna Vision Training follows a monocular therapy approach.
In order to secure long-term access to the market, Caterna Vision GmbH has applied for several patents. The patents ensure a certain combination of a system and a method to improve visual performance.
At present, 18 health insurance companies reimburse the Caterna Vision Training within the scope of selective contracts. The insurance companies cover both the costs for the 90-day Caterna therapy and the costs for medical therapy support.
As early as 2014, BARMER was the first statutory health insurance company to offer its members Caterna Vision Training as telemedical therapy for children between the ages of 4 and 12. AXA and Hanse Merkur are private health insurances that also reimburse their members for the therapy.
The 18 health insurance companies cover about 20% of patients in Germany. All other patients can receive the Caterna therapy as self-payers (IGeL). We also recommend that these patients ask their health insurance company for reimbursement of therapy costs.
Our experience shows that more than 50% of patients are currently reimbursed under the selective contracts as private patients or through individual case reimbursements.
In November 2017, the Eye Clinic Sulzbach an der Saar started an observational study under the direction of Prof. Januschowski to investigate innovations in the field of amblyopia therapy. Caterna supports this project in the establishment of an amblyopia network.
Amblyopia has a prevalence of up to 6%, which means that there are 400,000 patients with amblyopia in Germany aged 4 to 12 years. Every year 48,000 new patients are added (equivalent to 6% of the annual births of about 800,000).
There are 3 million children in the EU with amblyopia between the ages of 4 and 12. At present, Caterna is only focusing on the German market and primarily on patients for whom occlusion therapy has not yet had a real impact (second-line therapy). However, the aim is to establish Caterna Vision Training as a first-line therapy in the market and thus to significantly expand the target group.
The Founding Story of Caterna Vision GmbH
After the Caterna Vision Training was developed at the Technical University in Dresden, the founders of the time formed Caterna GmbH to market the product. However, the go-to-market concept did not work out and the company filed for insolvency in 2012.
In 2014, a business angel (Flying Health) bought the product from the insolvency estate and founded a new company, Caterna Vision GmbH. The aim of the newly founded startup was to enter the primary healthcare market in close cooperation with ophthalmologists. After the health insurance company BARMER agreed to cover the therapy costs for its members and signed the first selective contract, Peppermint Venture Partners and KfW joined as investors, thus enabling the future of the "new" Caterna.
Recent Developments
The Caterna Vision Training is a therapy for children aged 4 to 12 years. Until 2017, we mainly addressed ophthalmologists and orthoptists. This indirect market access was necessary to acquire enough practices with initial experience using the Caterna therapy.
The next step in 2017 was the acquisition of health insurance companies to cover the costs of the Caterna therapy.
However, the best way to access the market is to address affected parents directly. We intend to leverage this huge potential by means of online marketing measures.
We are particularly aiming to address parents whose amblyopic children are insured with the health insurance companies who already reimburse the Caterna therapy within the framework of selective contracts.
Internationalization is also an enormous potential for Caterna. The number of people affected by amblyopia is equally distributed worldwide at 3-6%. Caterna Vision Training is already available in German, English, Portuguese, Polish, and Dutch. Local sales partners will help us expand internationally step by step.
The existing investors Peppermint Venture Partners, KfW, and BFB Brandenburg Kapital GmbH have already invested EUR 1.9 million in Caterna. This was made possible through the introduction of our certified medical product into the primary health market, the recruitment of physicians, and ultimately by the treatment of more than 1,000 patients.
We also secured the support of 18 health insurance companies to cover the costs of the Caterna Vision Training.
The next step now is to address affected parents directly through a large online marketing campaign, to increase our reach, and to expand internationally.
In our investors Peppermint Venture Partners, KfW and BFB Brandenburg Kapital GmbH (subsidiary of ILB) we have found partners who support us not only financially but also with an understanding of the health market and access to strategists. Peppermint VenturePartners focuses exclusively on the health sector and has invested in Caterna through its Peppermint Charité Biomedical Fund. BFB Brandenburg Kapital also has numerous holdings in the health sector
To date, Caterna Vision GmbH has received approximately EUR 1.9 million.
Addressing the affected parents directly offers enormous potential for Caterna. We are looking for experts in the field of online marketing to join our team for this purpose. If you as a Companist know someone who meets this description, please do not hesitate to contact us.
From l. to r.: Vera Schüller (Head of Customer and Practice Support), Gloria Bahra (Customer and Practice Support), Michael Scherrer (Managing Director), Dr. Klaus Stöckemann (Chairman of the Caterna Advisory Board)
Caterna Vision GmbH
David-Gilly-Strasse 1
14469 Potsdam
Germany
Telephone +49 (331) 86 75 08-0
Fax +49 (331) 86 75 08-99
investor-relations@caterna.de
www.caterna.de
https://www.facebook.com/Caterna.Vision/
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