ATLANTA, Ga.—U.S.-based medical device company and producer of the NaturalVue Multifocal 1 Day Contact Lenses, Visioneering Technologies, Inc. recently announced it has enrolled 100 percent of the subjects in its international randomized controlled clinical trial known as ‘PROTECT’ (PROgressive Myopia Treatment Evaluation for NaturalVue Multifocal Contact Lens Trial). The study objective is to demonstrate and quantify the effectiveness of its NaturalVue Multifocal Contact Lenses in myopia progression control in children, Visioneering said. PROTECT is a multi-center, randomized, double-masked clinical trial with participating investigators in centers in Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

The trial enrollment includes 144 healthy nearsighted children (myopes) from 7 to 13 and under years of age whose current prescription is between -0.75D and -5.00D. Primary outcomes will be determined by the respective changes over time in refractive error progression and eye length, both important markers of myopia progression. VTI said it expects that the data will demonstrate the superiority of NaturalVue Multifocal over the control lens in managing myopia progression, thus providing an important data point for practitioners and VTI’s corporate partnering activities and corroborating the conclusions of the recently reported analysis of six-year real-world data for NaturalVue Multifocal.
 
In previous myopia control trials of this type, one-year follow-up data has been shown to be a strong predictor of overall trial outcomes. VTI expects to release one-year follow-up data from PROTECT in the fourth quarter of 2023, with longer-term data expected in late 2024 and final results in late 2025.
 
The study reached 100 percent enrollment, or all 144 subjects, on December 6, 2022. There have been no safety concerns to date, Visioneering said. The landmark study has enrolled subjects in sites in Toronto and Waterloo in Canada; New York, Chicago, Houston, and Fresno, Calif. in the U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore.
 
“The principal investigators at our existing sites have embraced the PROTECT Clinical Study,” commented VTI’s chief medical officer, Ashley Tuan, OD, PhD. “We believe the results of the PROTECT Clinical Study will corroborate our real-world data that showed a significant positive impact of NaturalVue Multifocal, making it an excellent choice for the management of myopia. We greatly appreciate the efforts of those independent eyecare professionals serving as principal investigators in this study and their commitment to providing the highest quality evidence of the effectiveness of this outstanding product. I look forward to sharing interim one-year results in late 2023.”