LOS ANGELES—Second Sight Medical Products (NASDAQ:EYES) a leading developer and marketer of implantable visual prosthetics for blind individuals, announced on March 5 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved its Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, a redesigned set of external hardware (glasses and video processing unit) initially for use in combination with previously implanted Argus II systems for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The news caused the price of Second Sight’s shares to increase almost tenfold to nearly $10 during Friday’s trading session.

The company said in a statement that it expects that the Argus 2s will be adapted to be the external system for the next generation Orion Visual Cortical Prosthesis System currently under development. In addition to ergonomic improvements, the Argus 2s system offers significantly more processing power, potentially allowing for improved video processing.

“We are very pleased to have received this approval, as it presents an opportunity to offer external hardware that we believe enhance comfort and aesthetics compared with the legacy Argus II system,” said Matthew Pfeffer, acting CEO of Second Sight.

A decision on when or if to begin production of the newly approved hardware is pending completion of Second Sight’s planned business combination with Pixium Vision, which currently is in progress. Should the business combination be completed, the new management team will then evaluate how best to proceed with the Argus 2s Retinal Prosthesis System, as well as all other products in development.